KITAMURA — Yesterday afternoon, local roads and train tracks in Kitamura City, Aikawa Prefecture were blocked in several places by heavy snow accumulation, delaying traffic by up to one hour while the snow was cleared.

The previous night had seen snowfall of approximately 4-6 cm, with roads and tracks sufficiently cleared for traffic by sunrise. However in the afternoon a snowball fight broke out between a group of female high school students passing through the vicinity of Kawabata Station, scattering over a thousand cubic meters of snow around the area.

Nana Akiyama and Tomoe Shimizu, both third year students at Omori Gakuen High School, were returning home along Kawabata-dori when they decided to begin tossing snowballs at one another from opposite sides of the road. “There was no particular reason for it,” recalls Shimizu, “We were just having fun.”

The exchange resulted in only comparatively light damage. Fragments of snowballs that hit Shimizu scattered off of her clothing and struck the windows of an apartment building directly behind her, rattling residents but causing no lasting damage. A 4 meter snowball thrown by Shimizu at Akiyama fell short and came to rest on the road between them, blocking one lane of traffic.

The incident escalated, however, when one of Akiyama's 3 meter snowballs overshot Shimizu and struck another student, Sayuri Maeda, who was approaching the area along the tracks of the Aikawa Tetsudo Main Line along with a friend, Haruka Nishimura. Maeda retaliated immediately with another 3 meter snowball that missed Akiyama and struck a utility pole, disrupting power and telephone service to three nearby buildings.

“We've been rivals since middle school, and I think she was looking for any chance to get back at me,” explained Akiyama. Maeda, for her part, maintains that she did not see Shimizu, who was largely concealed by the apartment building she was squatting behind, so it appeared that Akiyama had thrown a snowball directly at her.

During the two-on-two battle that followed a total of seven snowballs ranging from two to four meters in diameter fell onto the tracks or the road, blocking them partially in four locations and totally in three.

Finally after a heated exchange of words, Maeda scooped up all of the snow from the Kawabata Station parking lot in both hands, dumping it onto Akiyama's head while Nishimura held her in place. Shimizu attempted to intervene but the petite girl was unable to extricate her friend from the grasp of the taller, athletic Nishimura. Maeda and Nishimura then fled the area.

A number of unoccupied vehicles from the parking lot were swept up in the snow and fell onto Akiyama. Two cars landed on the road, one on its side and one on its roof. The impacts totaled both vehicles, but caused no other personal or property damage. A third car landed on the roof of a residential building, severing TV antennas and destroying an air conditioning compressor. One additional car and four bicycles were later found by Akiyama in her clothing and returned to the lot. The car and two bicycles had fallen into her coat pocket and were relatively unharmed. The other two bicycles had become entangled in the threads of her scarf; their chains and several spokes were snapped in the process of untangling them.

Snowplows and work crews were deployed by the Kitamura City Government, Aikawa Prefectural Government, and Aikawa Tetsudo to clear the road and tracks. Aikawa Main Line trains were delayed in both directions by 49 minutes due to the track blockage; Aikawa Tetsudo provided financial compensation to travelers who were affected by the delay.