Further on, I find 75-year-old Yae Nomura and her husband shovelling snow off their roof.

BBC: Tackling northern Japan's record snow

"If we were doing the same songs - like singing 'Yae cannae shove your Granny off a bus' all the time - I wouldnae do it, " he says.

BBC: Five reasons the Kettle is still Singing after 30 years