The building’s cool design isn’t the best fit for freezing weather.
There’s a lot of cool stuff to see in Kyoto, and it starts the second you get off the train. Kyoto Station is a stylish and modern building, with the full assortment of restaurants and souvenir shops you can expect at major rail hubs in Japan. What makes it especially nice, though, is the gigantic central concourse which lets in fresh air and natural sunlight, making it feel like you’re both inside the station and outdoors at the same time.
Unfortunately, it turns out that Kyoto Station’s unique architectural design isn’t exactly suited to snowstorms.
▼ This is inside the station.
Japan is experiencing a cold snap right now, and at around 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday snow started falling in Kyoto. It tapered off later in the afternoon, but started again in the evening, and conditions worsened as the night went on.
▼ “It’s snowing inside Kyoto Station.”
The amount of snow getting dumped on the city wasn’t the only shocking aspect to the weather, either. Fierce winds whipped through Japan’s former capital, and at times the snow wasn’t so much falling as being blasted sideways until it collided with some sort of standing object.
▼ The station’s Mister Donut branch got a slushy redecorating even as it served up those fancy new Toshi Yoroizuka collaboration donuts.
At times when the storm let up and the snowfall became more gentle, it actually looked sort of picturesque, assuming you were observing the scene from somewhere where you yourself were warm, preferably with a nice hot cup of green tea or mug of cocoa in your hands.
But as surreal as it must have been to have to deal with weather inside the station, it was still a lot better than facing the full force of the elements completely outside the building.
In the station designers’ defense, such intense snowstorms are rare in Kyoto, so it’s understandable that they weren’t a primary concern during the building’s planning. Still, we’re betting that a lot of train commuters are happy that there’s just a single day of light, scattered snow in Kyoto’s forecast for the upcoming week.
Source: Kyoto Shimbun via Jin
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