Tokyo's weather in February is unpredictable, so when the day I have set aside for exploring features a record-breaking blizzard, I'm not surprised. So, bundled up like Everest conqueror Edmund Hillary, I exit Hiroo Station in Minato Ward to find the air feathered with swirling flakes and the streets already hushed by drifts. I might as well be on the moon.

I hike past two coffee shops, glowing like base camps. Caffe Appassionato looks cozy as a java-scented library and Italian chain Segafredo Zanetti's place is fogged up with lucky customers inside, unable to enjoy its European-style sidewalk seating. Snow swallows both in my wake.

Heading east, I stop at a traffic light, entertained to see valets assist a few intrepid shoppers park their four-wheel sleds at National Azabu supermarket. Long beloved by both foreigners and Japanese for its food imports and community spirit, the grocery has been in the same location since 1962. Closing briefly after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, public campaigns saw the store completely rebuilt and opened again in 2012.