Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Talking of falling down snowy slopes...

These famous "gassho-zukuri" (praying hands style) steeply thatched buildings (which we visited last year, incidentally) are supposed to be designed to shed snow effectively, so I'm a bit surprised that people still have to climb on the roofs to clear them:

14 fall off Gifu temple's thatched roof

The news report doesn't mention whether they were successful in clearing the roof, but I suppose it's a safe bet that they took a fair chunk down with them. And I bet they didn't have ice axes either (not that they would have been much use).

1 comment:

Peter Skov said...

Funny. Maybe they should just start doing it that way: spread your arms and legs and take a flying leap!