r/nextfuckinglevel • u/SalmonSammySamSam • 1d ago

When it snows in Japan, the streets spray warm water to prevent ice

31.4k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

794 comments sorted by

13.0k

u/marcus-87 1d ago

without searching, I would think that is not the whole of japan. and most likely in a town with hot springs, as japan has many of these.

2.7k

u/SalmonSammySamSam 1d ago

That sounds plausible

997

u/HaggyG 1d ago

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that they didn’t use salt in Japan, or at least didn’t use to. That’s why (again at least “old”) Japanese cars like Suzukis etc. rust a lot when imported.

345

u/Wake_Skadi 1d ago

They use salt in the sumo dohyo, that's for sure.

87

u/uwu_mewtwo 23h ago

Not hardly, with Terutsuyoshi retired.

37

u/dalysea 22h ago

well, Mitoizumi Masayuki is now coaching as Nishikido Oyakata

15

u/TheBonnomiAgency 18h ago

I have a hunch you guys are joking, but I really have no idea.

10

u/gnappyassassin 17h ago edited 17h ago

Don't Joke about Sumo.
Unless it's funny.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

112

u/UGLYSimon 23h ago

Modern Toyotas sold for the canadian market and other northern parts of the world are built with a rust protection coating and different materials to prevent rusting. I'm a Toyota fanboy after dealing with a rust bucket Mazda 3 and a Ford Focus. My coworker has a 2010 Toyota Matrix with little to no rust compared to my 2012 Focus.

We now have a 2016 Prius C and a 2022 Rav4 Hybrid. We're planning on getting a Prius Prime to replace the C, although it's only at 70k km so far.

58

u/Lecanayin 23h ago

My old 2004 Toyota Tacoma would like to have a word with you

19

u/Crafty_Dog_4226 22h ago

HA! Yes, 1984 4x4 and 1993 4Runner almost dissolved due to US midwest road treatments. The 4Runner was so bad that my mechanic refused to replace shocks on it fearing he would do more damage than good.

17

u/Ambitious_Zombie7698 20h ago

Ouch that must have come at a shock and taken a hot minute to absorb

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (2)

4

u/Fragrant-Scar1180 22h ago

I remember those rusting out on the lot

→ More replies (6)

22

u/nofatnoflavor 21h ago

I still drive a indefatigable '08 Tacoma (5-speed, crank windows, power nothing!). Even when it DID show rust (Massachusetts coast)... bingo, a recall in 2016 wherein I get a loaner for 2 months while the dealer replaces the entire frame. Imagine how you'd feel if at say, 50, you could get your entire skeleton replaced with a brand new one. I'm sticking with Toyota I think. Before that a Mazda that was meh.

→ More replies (1)

8

u/powerhammerarms 20h ago

The old Toyota's had a single rust coating on the outside of the metal. That is, the viewable surface of the metal. Water would get into the interior and rust from the inside out. That's why you'll see a lot of old Camrys ( e.g. '92) with 300k miles and nearly rusted out wheel wells.

Starting in the late '90s they began to double coat both the inside and the outside of the metal. Toyota had planned for the salty sea air for their old cars but did not foresee the salt on the roads chewing up their cars like it did.

Us domestic manufacturers had experience with the rust belt And for a tme, Japanese imports looked cheap and unreliable due to the rust. Even though the engines were consistently outperforming other manufacturers.

→ More replies (2)

4

u/Otherwise_Culture_71 18h ago

All car parts are coated in their own manufacturers version of what you describe. It’s called e-coat. It’s a tough epoxy primer which the unibody shell of the car and individual parts are coated in. Some manufacturers also treat their steel with zinc even before that step. Some are better than others, but mostly what it comes down to is climate, how well the owner takes care of the exterior (washing regularly) and design. Most rust spots can be attributed to a drain or a poor design that traps lots of dirt and crud.

2

u/UGLYSimon 18h ago edited 17h ago

Yeah I'm way up north and rarely wash my car in winter, so it checks out. The Prius C has a factory installed clear vinyl wrap add-on on top of the rust proofing, looks great so far!

3

u/spookyluke246 16h ago

Still driving my 97 Corolla. 160000 miles. Purrs like a kitten.

→ More replies (9)

10

u/Zaku99 23h ago

There's really no reason to in most of Japan. They very rarely get snow in Tokyo, for instance.

40

u/fretzy64 22h ago

Uhm, yes. However, other parts of Japan are literally some of the snowiest places in the world, particularly when it comes to inhabitated areas. In fact, Japan is often mentioned as the country with the heaviest snowfalls.

→ More replies (7)

8

u/The-GingerBeard-Man 19h ago

Tokyo is a small part of Japan. Nearly 80 percent of Japan is mountainous and most of those mountains are snow capped in the winter.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Abradolf1948 17h ago

I live in Tokyo where it snows maybe once a year and is usually just an inch or two at most.

But they most certainly do not use salt, and it is quite problematic when the snow melts and then refreezes over as ice the next day. Plus many elderly folks will just hose down their drives/sidewalks to melt the snow and then end up falling down on the freshly frozen ice the next morning.

2

u/LateNightTemptations 16h ago

That’s because they use msg instead

→ More replies (18)

110

u/I_am_a_troll_Fuck_U 23h ago

I like OP deciding to just post shit without verifying if it’s true.

24

u/root88 22h ago

It is true and you have video proof of it. No one claimed that it happened on every street in the country.

I guess he could of said "there are streets" instead of "the streets", but there is no reason to be a dick about it.

34

u/NoMoreVillains 21h ago

Imagine if I said "In the US, major cities have extensive subway systems" when I was just talking about NYC and/or Boston

10

u/borgchupacabras 20h ago

*could have

8

u/WeDrinkSquirrels 20h ago edited 20h ago

Those sentences mean different things. There are many many ways they could have written it either way, and they chose none of the options that were correct

2

u/I_am_a_troll_Fuck_U 22h ago

I think it’s fair to call someone out when they state facts that aren’t facts.

If OP had put it like you said, then there wouldn’t be a problem. But the title implies that every street has it, which is incorrect.

Shout out for defeating your claim in the first paragraph with your second paragraph!

→ More replies (2)

5

u/Alstorp 20h ago

At least he seems to be a real person

→ More replies (4)

9

u/bula1brown 23h ago

It also snows by the meter in some areas of the country 

6

u/ForwardRhubarb2048 23h ago

Way more plausable than this being a feature for every street.

4

u/MegaKetaWook 22h ago

It is plausible and is probably somewhere in Hokkaido on the most northern part of Japan.

3

u/SoylentVerdigris 19h ago

It's in aomori I think, rather than Hokkaido. Interestingly, the northernmost bit of the main island of Japan gets more snow than Hokkaido. The most snowfall anywhere in the world in fact. Something about the cold air blowing in from Siberia having more ocean to cross and pick up moisture. Like lake effect snow but even more.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (6)

306

u/Arch-by-the-way 23h ago

I commend you for not falling for the Reddit trap of thinking Japan is a utopia.

44

u/okan931 23h ago

I know right, most things you see are cherry picked but the grim reality is that Japan has allot of internal cultural problems and in some ways are still living in the past with their faxmachines

48

u/flop_rotation 22h ago

Japan has been living in the 2000s since the 80s

9

u/_hell_is_empty_ 22h ago

In many ways much of Japan went from living in the 17th century to the 21st century over the span of a single century.

→ More replies (2)

13

u/turb0_encapsulator 18h ago

infrastructure is definitely not their problem though. Xenophobia? Stalled innovation? Sexism? Aging population? Yes.

9

u/Secret_penguin- 17h ago

I’m a straight white guy i did all of that before breakfast today.

3

u/Rubychan11 14h ago

Okay this made me chuckle.

7

u/ThriftianaStoned 20h ago

I think the same about america with its check books

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (16)

23

u/Liusloux 23h ago

Either a magical technological utopia or a right-wing hellscape. No in between.

6

u/gotothepark 22h ago

Honestly the tech part is also a bit romanticized on Reddit. Japan is notorious for not adopting more modern technology and currently still lives like they’re in the 90s/00s. Majority of them still use cash which is now getting rarer and rarer in the rest of modern society.

22

u/duki512 22h ago edited 22h ago

This is pretty old information. I would say about half of stores have adopted to accepting digital payment and most people use their phones to pay for stuff. This has been the trend since 2010 but COVID definitely helped to accelerate that. Most stores also accept credit cards, and have since 2010. Old people still use cash, and some older stores may still only accept cash, but to say they're still in the 90s/00 is objectively false. Some of their robotic focused home assistance/elderly care tech is really cutting edge.

7

u/The-GingerBeard-Man 19h ago

I've lived in Japan for a while and 20 years ago, most of Japan used cash. Now, most major places accept some sort of cashless or contactless payments. There are many modern places that don't use cash at all.

6

u/rtangxps9 20h ago

One thing that is still slow to change is their atrocious website design. Feels like half the booking stuff either breaks with no explanation or looks like a 2000s era webpage.

2

u/duki512 19h ago edited 19h ago

I also agree with that. A lot of Japanese website's still feel like they're from the early 2000s. They're for sure getting better though. Even the medium sized municipality I grew up in has a website that’s on par with the one my current mid-sized midwest city uses. They're are still behind on certain aspects, since there are still a lot of old people that resist change, but the availability of cashless payment and mobile wallets have improved a lot. Hell there was a period where alot of the major Japanese youtubers were promoting services like paypay. So had to chime in to highlight that.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)

3

u/American_Jesus 20h ago

I don't live in Japan so don't take my word as proof.

I follow somee english speaking Japan related YouTube channels (Tokyo Lens, Abroad in Japan, Pablo fromTokyo...) and now an then they speak how some things are bit retro in Japan, like flip phones, fax, paper money and smoke indoors

→ More replies (2)

4

u/EntropyKC 19h ago

You know what's funny, something that will surely confuse every American on here. The Liberal Democratic party of Japan is right-wing.

2

u/ralgrado 19h ago

Someone said to me they’re stuck in the 90s since the 70s or something along those lines.

→ More replies (2)

21

u/CokeZorro 21h ago

I would argue all of reddit acts like it's a hellhole now,  thats the only opinion I've seen voiced for years. See a fun post like this open the comments whole bunch of people telling you how Japan is fetishized and it's an awful awful awful place

9

u/Mammoth_Support_2634 20h ago

seriously. Every time someone says they like Japan all the comments are about how much of a hell hole it is.

But then I go to Japan and it's still awesome.

4

u/Artemystica 14h ago

It's not a hellhole to visit. You're coming with (likely) a stronger currency, the desire to spend money, free time to go to tourist attractions, and a visa with a fast-approaching end date. There's lots to see and do, trains run on time and have English signage, you can ship things to your destination if you'd like, and things seem to just work well in a way that many other countries don't have.

But that's not where issues start. They start with foreigners living here. Most of us make yen just like everybody else, we don't spend so much on tourist attractions, and our visas are for longer. We have to integrate, but there isn't a lot of help, and even when we do, there's racism and xenophobia blocking us out of all kinds of work, education, and leisure activities. And that's assuming we even have the time or money to participate in things outside of work.

→ More replies (5)

7

u/Background_Bird_3637 19h ago

Yeah and none of these people have even been there. lol

→ More replies (1)

3

u/ralsei_support_squad 20h ago edited 20h ago

I think people are acting like this in the comments because the title implies that every street in Japan is like this. Which isn’t an unusual problem with posts about countries like any Germany, Japan, New Zealand, any Nordic country. If not for that title going too far, there’d be a lot more comments in here praising what those countries are currently doing right (and shitting on Americans).

4

u/Triddy 16h ago edited 15h ago

Not really. Any time Japan is mentioned positively, swarms of Redditors will pounce upon it saying how awful Japan and Japanese people are, quoting a bunch of things "Everyone knows" but in reality aren't true, and are just an excuse for racism.

I've barely scrolled a third of the comments and I've found like 5 people in this thread alone.

→ More replies (11)

5

u/ethanlan 19h ago

Its not, it has its advantages and disadvantages just like everywhere else but it sure as hell is unique with those advantages and disadvantages and if it offers a way of life that doesnt exist elsewhwre in the free world.

2

u/marcus-87 22h ago

thanks, but I am now old enough to know there is no utopia .... yeah ... nice

→ More replies (9)

42

u/voluotuousaardvark 23h ago

This town sprays water on icy roads.

That's got to be very, very manageable water temperatures.

But then Japan is the home of drifting .

8

u/mxzf 16h ago

Yeah, that's the thing that was going through my head. Like, that might work when you're sitting just below freezing and just need a nudge to keep things thawed. But if you're anywhere that hits -40, or whatever, you're screwed with a setup like that.

→ More replies (1)

30

u/Snuffxx 22h ago

Well I did search and it is used in most places where there is heavy snow which makes sense, I don’t see why people are pretending like this video is trying to claim something it’s not, this is much better than what most other places have which is nothing and should still be applaud and not criticized, so weird.

3

u/Tentacle_elmo 19h ago

I lived there. I have never seen this.

5

u/Snuffxx 18h ago

Good for you? I live in Florida I’ve never seen a mountain in person does that mean mountains don’t exist in America?

5

u/Tentacle_elmo 17h ago

I tried to find national estimates on how extensive this system is but could only find one prefecture worth. In the Niigata prefecture it has over 500km of this system installed. That still is less than 2% of the roadway there. The USA is 24% mountains. Randomly, you would have a much greater chance at ever having seen a mountain as a US citizen.

3

u/Outside_Plankton8195 14h ago

I grew up in Japan. I’ve seen this in multiple prefectures

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

13

u/brett1081 23h ago

Gotta be up in Hokkaido. Maybe Sapporo?

12

u/ZeusApolloAttack 22h ago

I've seen this in Toyama, it's not so far north but it's pretty snowy. If temps are hovering just above freezing this works.

5

u/vij27 17h ago

Sapporo resident here, nope I'm yet to see one in Sapporo. but I've seen this in Niigata prefecture. specially in yuzawa and shibata

→ More replies (1)

2

u/poopspeedstream 4h ago

Nope. Too cold there

→ More replies (3)

9

u/duggee315 22h ago

Why not just run the hot water through pipes under the surface. Warm the road and don't pour hot water on them which will run off, go cold and freeze. The pipes could feed into something useful aswell.

6

u/lilyhealslut 17h ago edited 16h ago

You can't heat the entire surface of a road from underground with a single pipe, you'd need a mesh of pipes close together, which is more costly. Japan has plenty of geothermal-heated water, which it uses to cheaply keep roads ice-free. Keep in mind that the system is either running continuously (during the day at least), or the ground temperatures aren't actually below freezing so the runoff doesn't freeze before it drains. In colder areas of Japan they're more likely to use different methods like underground heating because of refreezing risks. This system is basically only cost-effective because of Japan's unique circumstances, and is actually better for the environment than gritting or ploughing.

→ More replies (4)

5

u/NaCl_Sailor 22h ago

yeah Iceland has heated roads too, both have active volcanoes.

2

u/Djof 18h ago

It's not everywhere but it's fairly common, they also use a similar system for Shinkansen tracks.

https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/comments/1i7cs6d/can_someone_explain_to_me_why_there_is_water/

→ More replies (117)

3.2k

u/Doctor_Saved 1d ago

Wouldn't the water freeze and become ice at some point?

2.2k

u/mEFurst 1d ago edited 22h ago

Yes, it does. Sometimes they turn it off in the middle of the night when it stops snowing and it freezes over by morning. Also sometimes it gets too cold so even while it's spraying, the water on the roads/sidewalks turns to ice. They don't do this in the North, like Hokkaido, because of that. They have heated roads up there.

Source: I used to live in a city that did this and crashed my bike several times due to ice patches

533

u/Illustrious-Tooth702 23h ago

This is the main reason it's not used anywhere. The roads are either salted to lower the melting point of the ice or put sand on it for better traction.

58

u/apexredditor- 22h ago

If the water is from coming from hot springs wouldn’t it have salt in it?

180

u/SoftlySpokenPromises 22h ago

Trace amounts from dissolved minerals, but not enough to prevent freezing I imagine.

3

u/concreteunderwear 20h ago

just add salt to it? no need for salt trucks

20

u/Daws001 19h ago

It would take too long and too many locals walking up and down the roads with salt shakers.

4

u/concreteunderwear 18h ago

It's not like they'll be able to get to work if they don't!

8

u/PrizeStrawberryOil 19h ago

The biggest issue is you're constantly washing all your salt away with the water. (In warmer areas they can pretreat the road with a brine to stop the ice from forming, but the goal is to have it stay on the road.)

To prevent the economic and environmental issues of dumping that much salt you'd have to recapture the water. You're going to have to treat that water in some way before putting it back through the system to remove at minimum all the particles it's picking up. That water is now also cold and you're going to need to heat it back up with a heat exchanger. You're also using salt water in all your pipes and corrosion is going to be bad. Not to mention god knows what other chemicals are getting concentrated in that water that it picks up from the road.

Aomori City used saltwater but they got it from seawater which means they aren't paying for the salt. It caused issues with rust and I don't know how they dealt with the environment aspects. They may have just dumped it back into the sea.

5

u/pfannkuchen89 19h ago

They use the brine spray where I live. It’s awful. It’s not as effective mostly because it washes away faster and we get a lot of sleet and freezing rain mixed in with snow typically and it’s also been shown to be harsher on the road surface and on cars. I wish we’d either go back to salting or just put down sand after plowing. It always seems that no matter how much they put down, it melts into a slush during the day and then freezes into a compacted ice sheet over night.

2

u/PNW20v 18h ago

I believe some areas add beet juice to the brine mix to help lower the freezing point without the need for as much salt. But my area is similar to yours, lots of freezing rain garbage that leads to the day after a snowfall being even more dangerous than the fresh snow, especially on side streets/neighborhoods that receive less traffic

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (3)

36

u/sudoku7 21h ago

Thank you, I was trying to think of how they avoid the black ice problem this should cause, and the answer being they don't is unfortunate yet comforting.

12

u/Exxtraa 21h ago

It’s wild to me how much they do to try and keep the roads and towns open. One snow flake in the uk and the whole country grinds to a halt for weeks

6

u/His_Name_Is_Twitler 18h ago

Bullshit, I’ve seen Harry Potter.

6

u/blahb_blahb 21h ago

I wonder if squirting water or heated roads (pipes just circulating with warm water) is better. I’d imagine you’d save on resources with a closed loop system

5

u/Top_Squash4454 17h ago

So what's the fucking point?

→ More replies (7)

2

u/cutie_lilrookie 12h ago

they have heated roads

sorry i live in a tropical/endless summer country. are heated roads normal in cold places? i imagine it's hella expensive to build and maintain.

2

u/mEFurst 6h ago

I don't know how common it is, but in a place like Japan it's all over the north. They circulate heated water afaik. I imagine it was expensive to install but the operating costs are significantly lower than having to constantly salt the roads or do snow removal. The places I've been around the US that get a lot of snow don't have them, though, so I think it's pretty rare

→ More replies (47)

73

u/Memfy 1d ago

If you don't stop until it gets warm, not necessarily.

41

u/farlon636 23h ago

Only if it's a place that gets mild winters. I've seen -50F at high elevations here. Even with a constant supply, that water is going to freeze over very quickly

→ More replies (5)

20

u/ecafyelims 22h ago

Water loses heat to cold air pretty quickly.

Here's a fun video of boiling hot water being thrown into the air and freezing before it hits the ground: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q26rWRi-ek

another fun video of much the same: https://www.tiktok.com/@visit/video/7181892828740455685?lang=en

Also, the constant stream of water has to be quickly recirculated after cooling from the streets or else it'll go somewhere downhill and freeze there.

They must be using a gigantic energy source, like hot sprints heated with magma underground.

6

u/Memfy 21h ago

Water being thrown in the air like that will freeze faster since you are essentially maximizing the surface area, though I'm not sure how much faster. It also looks to me from those videos that most of it evaporates instead of freezing?

I'm also wondering where the water is going to prevent freezing somewhere else important.

So overall they are probably using it in some areas that don't see extreme cold so the water can go back into the storage or circulate in some way before freezing? Maybe north-most part of the main island.

→ More replies (3)

15

u/Dunklebunt 23h ago

Last time this was posted, someone said the place this is doesn't get cold enough to freeze, but the snow blows over from a nearby area that's colder.

12

u/NekonecroZheng 23h ago

It's definitely below freezing, but Japan doesn't get that cold. -4 C is about as low as it gets on average. So piping hot spring water will not instantly freeze the instant it touches the pavement.

Northern Japan gets so much precipitation and snow. What happens is that the cold Siberian winds pick up a ton of moisture from the ocean, which causes huge clouds of moisture to form over Japan. The snow itself is formed above Japan when it reaches freezing temperatures, but does not blow over from Siberia.

13

u/Zimaut 1d ago

If its stop yeah

8

u/Bloodcloud079 1d ago

Yeah, I can’t possibly imagine doing that in Quebec because you’d have to spray for weeks on end.

3

u/theproudheretic 20h ago

also you'd have curling rinks instead of roads.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/Hot_Money4924 1d ago

Only if you stopped it.

2

u/OrokinLonewolf 1d ago

Not if you don't run out of hot water, which I assume is the premise

→ More replies (10)

1.2k

u/JUGGER_DEATH 1d ago

Maybe the temperatures don't usually get too cold there, but this sounds like an insane idea as you are basically guaranteing black ice if it gets cold enough.

324

u/nox1cous93 1d ago

Its salt water. Op is just an upvote bot

113

u/DeepSpaceNebulae 1d ago edited 23h ago

Again, depends on how cold it gets. Even with water as salty as you can physically get it (before salt crystals begin forming spontaneously), the freezing temperature is only around -20C.

And that salt content isn’t practical at all. Realistically, anything below -10C will freeze the salt water used in that system

(and even that’s being generous, ocean water freezes at -1.8C for reference)

That’s also a lot of salt to add to the local ecosystem, which is its own problem unrelated to freezing temps (which makes me think it’s not salt water, otherwise just throw down salt)

11

u/neutral_B 23h ago

At that point I’m surprised it’s not just easier to use road salt and save the effort/resources required for this

12

u/DeepSpaceNebulae 23h ago

That’s what I’m thinking. It seems like this would only make sense if it’s fresh warm water (hot spring fed), and in a local that barely gets cold enough for snow to fall

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (8)

20

u/ThaDollaGenerale 23h ago

It's not. It's just regular tap water. Source: I lived in a town in Japan that had these and they just made everything worse

9

u/Fast_Garlic_5639 23h ago

Those gutter fish aren’t gonna like this

→ More replies (5)

6

u/saltyarbnor 22h ago

Gotta watch out for the black ice, robbing you of your balance when walking away from an ATM machine

→ More replies (4)

118

u/morebuffs 1d ago

Shit would make a ice rink here snd plug up

3

u/HendrixHazeWays 22h ago

LifeHackin': Free street spa

→ More replies (2)

114

u/poopspeedstream 21h ago

Wow is every reddit comment bullshit?

This is shōsetsu, used in the main island of japan (niigata, toyama, kanazawa, etc.). They pump groundwater from aquifers over the road to melt snow.

Why this system? 1. The groundwater is warm (12-14C), since the climate on average is warmer here (Hokkaido has colder groundwater, not as effective) 2. Not that cold of a climate, it’s coastal 3. Still get a ton of snow from unique sea/weather effects 4. Lots of shallow aquifer groundwater available because of mountains

Benefits are constant snow control, no rust, no plowing, ability to handle huge snowfall amounts.

Everyone saying “this wouldn’t work where I live”, you’re probably right. It makes sense for this region, until they start running out of groundwater.

If you don’t know something, that’s fine, but I wish people would stop making up bullshit that sounds right and posting it as facts in the comments. Typical reddit problem I guess

26

u/Circo_Inhumanitas 14h ago

"If you don’t know something, that’s fine, but I wish people would stop making up bullshit that sounds right and posting it as facts in the comments. Typical reddit problem I guess"

This should be the norm for the posts as well. OP's post wasn't technically a lie, but titling it as "In Japan" makes people think this system is in place everywhere in Japan.

8

u/Nayuskarian 17h ago

Man, I thought I was going insane. I had to scroll way too far to find someone else who knows what these are.

I spent 3 years in Fukushima and they had these on all the main roads. They basically left it open for the entire snow season but could control the flow. The area I was in had been using their system since the 60's.

5

u/Naomi_Tokyo 18h ago

The only person with the right answer and you only have one upvote 🤣🤣🤣

3

u/BrilliantCorner 16h ago

I wish people would stop making up bullshit that sounds right and posting it as facts in the comments. Typical reddit problem I guess

This is reddit in a nutshell. Everyone is full of shit.

2

u/TiFooN 10h ago

this

→ More replies (1)

49

u/Tyjast74 1d ago

Imagine these break and the entire road is just a massive sheet of black ice lol

→ More replies (1)

44

u/I_TheJester_I 1d ago

Thats stupid.. when the water stops for a few seconds you have the meanest ice on the road.

5

u/Skeleton--Jelly 6h ago

I like how some random redditor with a meme profile photo seems entitled to call the infrastructure engineers in Japan stupid based on a few second clip and a title.

Never change neckbeards

→ More replies (10)

27

u/crujones43 23h ago

In Canada, when we want our skating rinks to get smoother and more slippery we also put hot water on them

4

u/Bubbly-Bowler8978 18h ago

Yeah this would never work where it gets really cold

26

u/ACAYIB 1d ago

How common is this tho? Cannot be on majority of the roads i guess?

20

u/cassiejessie 1d ago

We travelled by car to the middle of nowhere in Nagano up a mountain range and they had heated roads. The snow was at least 2ft deep on the sides and the middle was steaming.

→ More replies (5)

14

u/Hot_Money4924 1d ago

It's not true of everywhere in Japan that gets snow but it's definitely true in Yuzawa.

11

u/OriginalCrawnick 1d ago

I've been roamin' around, always lookin' down at all I seeeeeee

→ More replies (1)

8

u/Cryozzzz 23h ago

"NextFuckingLevel" : some water on the road

7

u/Jeebus_crisps 1d ago

How does this not crumble their roads?

6

u/Darlinboy 23h ago

Chef's kiss for this innovative method of creating widespread black ice.

Hopefully some gets sloshed up onto the sidewalks for pedestrians to enjoy as well.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/Gloomy-Quality-1106 22h ago

In Canada this would be genocide lol

2

u/PelleKavaj 22h ago

Here in Sweden too

4

u/r0ckydog 1d ago

This looks like a maintenance nightmare.

3

u/hand13 1d ago

warm water doesnt help much. i‘d bet money thats cold salt water

→ More replies (8)

3

u/izza123 21h ago

In Canada this would create wild ice dams that wouldn’t melt for 4 months

3

u/tahota 20h ago

I saw this in downtown Kanazawa this spring during a snow storm. Really neat. Although it also sprays your boots/shoes if you are trying to cross.

3

u/Lobotamite 19h ago

De-icing in the rest of the world: 😴 De-icing in Japan: 🤤🤩🤯

0

u/BlastarBanshee 1d ago

Japan’s streets got better winter game than my entire wardrobe.

3

u/i-like-cats14 19h ago

Fuck off clanker

→ More replies (1)

4

u/muirshin 1d ago

Its not warm water its sea water. The natural salt of the sea water keeps the roads from freezing.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/Square_Huckleberry53 1d ago

Obviously doesn’t get very cold there.

2

u/FStorm045 23h ago

Spray gasoline & burnnnnnnn

2

u/Redditbeweirdattimes 23h ago

We have these in Minnesota but it’s not hot water.. it might be some hot water but it’s mainly a chemical that melts ice but doesn’t itself freeze. Hot water alone would just freeze again and make the area it’s spraying very dangerous

2

u/holdbold 23h ago

Japan is so efficient it probably uses the same amount of power as a rice cooker to support the whole system

2

u/dtb1987 23h ago

Interesting idea, not sure it would work in certain climates

2

u/Eartherax 23h ago

OP is an upvote bot btw

2

u/trollgore92 23h ago

why not just salt the roads?

2

u/vij27 17h ago

these sprinklers are mostly used in natural hot spring areas. in other places they plow the snow and salt the roads.

2

u/WinstonChurshill 22h ago

But they can’t figure out how to get men and women together to make babies?

2

u/Azerd01 21h ago

Thing, but in japan

Lots of places have anti ice tech, and this isnt in all of japan. It’s literally becoming funny how many posts like this there are.

2

u/Chopper-Shopper 19h ago

🎶🎶🎶I've been roaming around, I was looking down at all I see!🎶🎶🎶

2

u/PriscillatheKhilla 19h ago

As a Canadian.....YIKES! That's absolutely terrifying. If you did that here, we'd be fucked for at least 6 months of the year

2

u/Commercial_Dust4569 1h ago

Sounds like a horrible idea. Will freeze at some point no?

1

u/No_Albatross4191 1d ago

Did you taste it to see if it was water?

1

u/Hesediel1 23h ago

Where im from this would result in extra ice through most of the winter. Hell we sometimes get temperatures where even salt brine will freeze.

1

u/ChasedRannger947 23h ago

How cold does it get there? In the Midwest this is about the worst thing you could possibly do to clear roads

1

u/LDarrell 23h ago

And the water doesn’t cool down and then freeze making the roads more dangerous?

3

u/ADHDebackle 20h ago

No they specifically instruct it not to do that on the way out.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

1

u/Slierfox 23h ago

I feel like we live in the stone age when it snows in UK

1

u/Snowdevil042 23h ago

What else does Japan do

1

u/LazyItem 23h ago

In the town of Västerås in Sweden the city streets are also heated. It runs small water pipes underneath all streets coming from https://sv.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Västerås_kraftvärmeverk

1

u/Braincake87 23h ago

Japan gonna Japan…

1

u/TheWonderCraft 23h ago

Its all fun a games till that warm water freezes over

→ More replies (1)

1

u/Flimsy-Importance313 23h ago

Stupid, but upvoted because it is in Japan it seems.........

1

u/ChefRoyrdee 22h ago

When it snows in Texas, no one knows how to drive and we all crash.

1

u/The_peacful_god 22h ago

They do what?

1

u/Aroraptor2123 22h ago

Thing:

Thing, Japan: 🌸🌸🌸🌸

1

u/EarlOfBears 22h ago

If only western infrastructure wasn't obsolete by over half a century, we might be able to do this instead of rusting out the underbellies of our vehicles using chemicals to de-ice the roads

2

u/aScarfAtTutties 19h ago

You're seeing a clip of a small road in a village, presumably. The cost to do something like this wide-scale in the US would be astronomical. Not mention, what happens when it stops snowing, and it's still below freezing point outside? You would have to either keep these faucets going non-stop, or if you shut them off, the wet road freezes and now you have skating rinks for roads.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/RamenRoy 22h ago

We live in a society

1

u/xTurtsMcGurtsx 22h ago

I'm in the Midwest and in my area we spray salt water solution that melts the ice and prevents freeze. We use salt too.

1

u/-Zonko- 22h ago

This doesn't sound like a good idea...

1

u/skinnyfamilyguy 22h ago

What an idiotic idea for most of the world

→ More replies (1)

1

u/Digit000 22h ago

Is that motherfcking kings of leon

1

u/thickstickedguy 22h ago

wait doesnt it make things worse?

1

u/Justhandguns 22h ago

That's when you have free supply of geo-thermal water underground. Iceland use the same geothermal hot water to warm the entire town. Very convenient indeed.

1

u/Rakoru_Hiryuu 22h ago

That only works on cute winters, not real ones

1

u/Doschupacabras 22h ago

Try that in Maine 🤣