Yukigakoi extends to playgrounds!

The practice of yukigakoi, or snow protection, is something we see a lot of in our local area at this time of year. Wooden barriers are placed against windows on people's homes, and structures are placed around fragile trees to ensure they don't collapse under the weight of the winter snow.

We were at our local playground with our kids the other day, enjoying one of the last warm autumn days before winter decides to settle in, when we saw that even the large playground there has received a dose of yukigakoi --  this wasn't just an extra hardcore jungle gym but a wooden trellis, erected to prevent the slide and other parts of the playground getting damaged. 

Our local area gets up to three meters of snow annually, so it's not an overreaction at all to build up structures like this!