Winter Wonderland . . . in Japan?

Obviously I've forgotten a lot of my elementary school geography, because I don't think of Japan as being this snowy.  Sure, I remember seeing a few pictures of snow-capped mountains from time to time (Mt. Fuji is it?), but from my comfortable distance I have come to picture Japan as being a very-large-islandish, coastal, fish-eating, long-lived sort of country.  A nice country.  Nice people.  But not a winter wonderland.

But apparently this is record snowfall in Japan.

It must be that global warming we've been hearing all about.  Or maybe they should call it global freezing?

Yes, I know, the global warming believers have an explanation for such things.  It gets hotter -- evidence of global warming.  Hurricanes? -- global warming did it.  It rains? -- evidence of global warming.  Drought -- you guessed it.  Record snowfall -- ditto.  Snow melts -- more evidence of global warming.  Quiet, peaceful summer night with only the crickets chirping -- evidence of global warming.  OK, I made that last one up.  But anything even remotely out of the ordinary, weather-wise on any given day -- global warming.

But how shall we describe this phenomenon, since obviously things are not warming up in Japan at the moment?

I've got it.  The world is experiencing semi-global warming.  As well as semi-global cooling. 

So on average, everything is just perfect.

In my expert opinion, of course.

Hey, prove me wrong. 

We'll just check back in a few thousand years and see who had a better grasp of the global weather situation.

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Another interesting read on the science, or perhaps the lack thereof, underlying the alarm over global warming is available in the February 2005 archives at Wizbang.