Snow brings chaos to Japan

Luc Citrinot in Travel Daily News: Sudden snow in Eastern Japan halted public transport and caused dozens of road accidents last Monday with Japan’s national television network NHK reporting about 267 being injured in road accidents following heavy snow.

Snow delayed train services and disrupted also flights last Monday as Tokyo was blanketed by the first snowfall of the season. The Meteorological Agency issued a gale and snow advisory for central Tokyo, with 7 cm of snow already fallen in the capital, said Kenji Okada, a forecaster for the agency. The snow came 11 days later than the average first fall and six days earlier than last year, according to Okada.

Power was cut to 6,200 households in Tokyo and the surrounding area in the evening. Minor delays were expected for bullet train services to and from the Japanese capital. Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) said.  Some train lines in Metropolitan Tokyo area were also temporarily halted.

...Tokyo's Narita International Airport said 3,400 travelers spent the night in the terminal after 71 flights were cancelled. Operations returned to normal Tuesday except for a few delays, according to Associated Press news agency...

A snowy street in Tokyo, shot by Masahiro Hayata, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license