For anyone coming to the Iya Valley in the next few days, be sure to bring your thermal underwear!
Last night the temperature in central Oku-Iya got down to -11C and daytime temperatures did not get above -4C. That may be normal for places like Hokkaido or the Japanese Alps, but down here in Shikoku its pretty frigid!
The cold also brought quite a bit of snow, about 20cm more on top of the 15cm that Iya got a week ago around New Years. It was the third snowstorm of the winter so far, and as of Saturday Jan 9th its still lightly snowing. And possible heavier snow is probably going to come a few days from now on Jan 11th and/or 12th.