yesterday I was talking via skype with a friend living in South France - I also talked with her little 7 years old son - there is about 30 cm snow in that region & it's apparently a total chaos in traffic - because in these southern regions where such 'catastrophes' happen about every 5 years, are not prepared to react appropiate to these masses of snow on the streets.
Anyway this little boy told me that they've been building a small snow man on that day with leaves as eyes & a potato as nose (we usualle took coals for eyes & a carot for the nose) - I asked him what snow man was called in french - he answered & I understood 'un homme de neige' - but he corrected me, when I repeated it - it was 'bonne homme de neige' - in German it's like in English 'Schneemann' (snow man), but in french it's 'good snow man'
just by chance I just saw a documentation about Japan (I like historical stuff, wildlife films & docu's about other cultures - if all people were that interested in these themes - there would be much more understanding & conscience about different behaving)
The japan documentation was called 'a winter's tale' & told about asketic life ofF Fu Kui monks & their rites & lifes.
..also about a small northern Japanese village called 'she luh mille' (shi la mille) where there is a custom to build in winter all kind of snow men & other kind of snow figures - about all the villagers work like in a contest on these snow sculpures spread all over town & it's an attraction for tourists too.
Here some (bad) shots I took from the the tv screen - just to get you the idea.
