A few weeks ago I had things to do in Tokyo and Yokohama, so I had a ticket booked for a late-afternoon train from Nagano on Jan. 22. Then that morning my manager in Tokyo phoned to tell me I should come early because "heavy snow" was expected during the day, meaning trains would be delayed and taxis hard to get. At the time there was snow about a meter deep around my house in Kurohime in Nagano Prefecture.