Winter walkability (or lack thereof) in rural Niigata

One thing I love about my local area during most of the year is that it's quite walkable. I have a supermarket about 10 minutes on foot one way, a farmer's market about 10 minutes in another direction, plus a couple of convenience store chains, a train station, bank, and a post office also within walking distance. Basically, most things you need for daily living are convenient to access on foot or by bike even if you don't have a car.

During winter, though, that's usually not the case. While some areas will have their sidewalks cleared by machine, other areas just see it build up. You can see in the picture below that if you weren't in a car, you'd end up having to walk on the road...which isn't particularly safe or advisable.

Not very pedestrian-friendly at this time of year.

If you don't have a car or a license out here, it can make life tricky. I think when you live in Tokyo, for instance, it's fairly easy to get away with not having a car, and in fact in a lot of respects it's more convenient not having one, because you'd always need to have somewhere to park it. During winter here, though, you'd be pretty limited without one.