Coming from a culture where shoveling snow from sidewalks and driveways is a regular part of winter life, I was prepared for shoveling snow here in Japan.  However one thing that took me by surprise was that here everyone gets out and shovels the street as well! 

At first I couldn't figure it out.  I could  see that there are snow plows, and yet the neighbors are all dutifully shoveling the road out front of their houses.  Why?  Doesn't the snow plow do that?

However, with some thought, I started to realize what was happening and why.  Residential sections in Japan have the same problems as in other countries I've lived in but they deal with them differently.  Most residential districts, in whichever country, wish to curb the through traffic, which often goes too fast, and causes a nuisance.  Some places put in speed bumps, and there are other ways to deter the traffic, but the norm here is to have very narrow winding roads with perhaps some one way streets, for sure there will be some two way streets that any sane person would expect to be one way, and lots of cul-de-sacs, which effectively discourage through traffic.  More than once I have decided to take a short cut between one large road and another through a residential neighborhood, and in most cases I have wished I hadn't.  The system works, and I don't do that anymore.

However, this same deterrent works very well with snow plow crews.  They can't get the big machinery into those neighborhoods, and if they could, they might not be able to get it back out.  The snowplows stick to the main roads, and the neighbors shovel the residential streets.