Photo/Illutration People in winter clothes walk toward their workplaces in the chilly morning of Feb. 7 at Tokyo's Marunouchi district. (Rei Kishitsu)

In "Fuyu ga Kita" (Winter has come), poet Kotaro Takamura (1883-1956) portrays winter as an intense season of brute force. 

"Winter has come, decisively ... Winter has come, like sharp, excruciating pain," the poem goes.

With open arms, the poet welcomes this frigid season of dead vegetation and lack of insect activity: "Come to me, winter, come to me/ I am winter's strength, and winter is my prey."

It's too late in the season now to loudly recite Takamura's verse, but the year's biggest chill hit the entire nation on Feb. 6.

Snow-starved ski resort operators and snow festival organizers must have been among the most exultant.

In the Akita Prefecture city of Yokote, known for its midwinter Kamakura Festival that features traditional igloo-like snow houses called "kamakura," organizers have been preparing for this event by scraping together whatever snow they could get from nearby communities.

But now, the city is able to make kamakura with its own snow.

And the town of Kushimoto in Wakayama Prefecture just reported the arrival of "umigiri" (literally, sea fog), for which the area is famous.

Frigid air causes fog to rise from the sea, creating a fantastic backdrop for the silhouettes of the islands that dot the sea.

This year's unseasonably mild winter prevented the emergence of this scenic spectacle, but it finally came in its full glory yesterday.

Probably because there have been some really balmy days that even bothered me a bit, I am sort of glad about the arrival of this big chill. And perhaps this also owes to my sense of relief that spring is now just around the corner.

In fact, I recently saw red ume (Japanese apricot) flowers starting to bloom in wintry winds.

In the above-mentioned poem, Takamura likened the sharpness of winter to a blade.

This winter's blade seemed nicked and blunt, but now it has become well-honed.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 7

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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