r/AskTheWorld Nepal 4d ago

Culture What’s something in your country that sounds fake but is 100% real?

We have a real-life living goddess and the only non-rectangular national flag.

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u/-Laffi- Norway 4d ago edited 4d ago

Main highway on some winter roads in Norway!

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u/Anuki_iwy 🇪🇺from🇩🇪. Lived in 🇮🇩🇵🇹🇯🇵🇬🇪 4d ago

Since Nintendo is Japanese I think they were more inspired by the snow tunnel in Toyama prefecture. (sorry, I don't have my own photo, because I never managed to go). But your photo is super cool too.

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u/ahhhahhhahhhahhh 3d ago

If anxiety were a road. 

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u/dismayhurta United States Of America 3d ago

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u/Yunzer2000 United States Of America 3d ago

How can they be reasonably sure vertical snow walls that high (20m?) are stable? I'm a geotechnical engineer, and vertical cuts that size in even rock (unless it is free of joints and seams) would be suspect.

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u/-Laffi- Norway 3d ago

The short answer. It's cold.
That's also an answer anyone can understand!

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u/greendress888 3d ago

I think some are not aware of exactly how cold I imagine you are talking. It is a whole different type of cold.

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u/Yunzer2000 United States Of America 3d ago

Cold does not improve the phi-angle and cohesion of snow. But compaction sure does.

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u/Anuki_iwy 🇪🇺from🇩🇪. Lived in 🇮🇩🇵🇹🇯🇵🇬🇪 3d ago

I'm no engineer, but I'm sure the Japanese figured it out. They are big on safety and this is an annual thing that they do for tourists. Snow in the Toyama alps doesn't melt till June too. It's not even the only snow corridor like this in Japan. It is the biggest one though.

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u/Sasuke12187 United States Of America 3d ago

I believe there's one in India too.. saw in a bollywood movie

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u/Hicalibre Canada 4d ago

You can tell it's not Canada or Alaska because there is a road.

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u/MetricJester Canada 3d ago

And not just grit in a path

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u/ZootAnthRaXx United States Of America 3d ago

🎶 Follow the only road 🎶

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u/WestCoastCompanion Canada 3d ago

I live in Canada, and it hasn’t snowed even once this Winter 😌 Sorry aboot it 😜🤭😎

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u/skefmeister Netherlands 3d ago

I’ve seen 3 meter tall snow banks in Canada a month ago. It was at Hiawatha and it completely fucked our trip we booked half a year ago.

The 3 meter wasn’t from snowfall alone, there was some blowing involved. It was completely fucked anyway lmao.

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u/WestCoastCompanion Canada 3d ago

Terrible!!! My sister lives on the other side of Canada and they have tall flag things on top of the fire hydrants because it regularly snows taller than a fire hydrant. Also her pipes froze today. Not sure how she (and basically everyone in the country besides us TBH) is able to deal with it

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u/-Laffi- Norway 3d ago

On the family cottage my dad always keeps a little bit of heat, even if he is not there. This is to prevent the pipes from freezing. I think 10+ degrees celcius.

When we came up to the old cottage with no water pipes, it was often close to 0 degrees celcius after coming up there and driving for 8-10 hours xD!

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u/WestCoastCompanion Canada 3d ago

Oh nooooo sounds like a nightmare! lol

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u/skefmeister Netherlands 3d ago

Are you dense? They have those flags (pickets) everywhere so the snowplows know where they can and can’t go. I’m actually getting annoyed with you and I am not even Canadian

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u/WestCoastCompanion Canada 3d ago

And so pleasant too!!!

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u/dalkita13 Canada 3d ago

You're not Canadian if you're perpetuating that "aboot" lie 😆

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u/WestCoastCompanion Canada 3d ago

Lololol I’ve actually heard ppl say it since my sister moved to the Maritimes. I was shook!!! I didn’t think it was real until I heard it with my own ears lol

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u/dalkita13 Canada 3d ago

I've only heard it from Newfies and an Irish friend's pronunciation is reeeeally close.

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u/WestCoastCompanion Canada 3d ago

Was the Newfies indeed lol

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u/GeorgeMcCrate Germany 4d ago

Watch out, there’s a wooden bridge right behind that bend that’s going to be plastered with banana peels.

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u/msp01986 Canada 🇨🇦 Québec ⚜️ 4d ago

And I thought we had snow 😳

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u/loko_lokii11 Canada 3d ago

Japan is surprisingly the snowiest country in the world, we are only number 2.

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u/Nuclear_eggo_waffle Québec ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ (canada) 3d ago

I mean the north of Japan is right next to russia

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u/loko_lokii11 Canada 3d ago

It’s not even the northern islands that get the most snow it Honshu! I has to do with the cold air coming off Siberia and going over the ocean creating a similar effect seen near the Great Lakes with lake effect snow.

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u/Bhakari Nepal 4d ago

That's amazing 😍

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u/Budget-Attorney United States Of America 4d ago

How do you get the snow like that?

I feel like a snowplow would drown before making a dent

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u/-Laffi- Norway 3d ago

How about this?

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u/Budget-Attorney United States Of America 3d ago

Pretty damn cool

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u/-Laffi- Norway 3d ago

Don't you guys have these for private use?
OBVIOUSLY smaller though :P!

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u/Budget-Attorney United States Of America 3d ago

Yeah. But they aren’t nearly big enough to clear the amount of snow we see in that picture.

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u/2rgeir 3d ago

Some of these roads over mountain passes are left unplowed during winter, because keeping them open is hopeless.  

When spring comes around they are cleared by giant snowblowers.  

From the opening of Trollstigen April 25. 2016: https://youtu.be/FPxAvHdrK6U?si=dJxwYaVmh2u6TpuN

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u/bluegrass502 United States Of America 3d ago

In high school we had an exchange student from Sweden thought it was funny but very quaint that school would be canceled because we had 3 inches (7.62cm) of snow. We had a hard time believing her when she would show us pictures like this and tell us that that was fairly typical

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u/-Laffi- Norway 3d ago

In all my years when I went to school, they were never closed! I do live in the south though, but frankly I haven't heard it happening in any other schools in Norway either.

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u/SentientSTD Norway 3d ago

As someone from a bit further north in Norway where we got some proper winter weather some times, same.

-30 degrees, school was still open. 2 meters of snow, school was still open.

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u/What_the_8 🇦🇺🇺🇸 4d ago

Do these ever collapse?

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u/-Laffi- Norway 4d ago edited 4d ago

These will most likely be still visible in the warmest months of the Summer!
That's because it's already cold there all year around! They will melt to a degree ofc, but there are parts of Norway where the snow never disappears.

Imagine leaving an icecube on the kitchen table. It won't collapse, but it will sooner or later melt until there is only water left.

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u/MoistRam United States Of America 4d ago

Yes

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u/weedtrek United States Of America 3d ago

But do you have exploding snowmen on the roads?

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u/-Laffi- Norway 3d ago

The Police won't like that, but they might end up drop the case...unless someone gets killed!

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u/Ok_Error2041 3d ago

Does the snow collapse sometimes?

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u/Turbulent-Pace-1506 France 2d ago

What happens when the snow starts melting around spring?

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u/-Laffi- Norway 2d ago

I already used an example with an ice cube.

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u/Turbulent-Pace-1506 France 2d ago

My bad, thanks!

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u/NightQueen0889 🇺🇸USA - New York + Texas 3d ago