Last Updated: Jan 19, 2025

Japan’s Snow Country

More than a Locale for Winter Sports

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium.

Welcome back to another installment of Japan area guides. As always, we’ll be diving deep so that you, the reader, can explore a region of rural Japan without worry. In today’s post, we’ll examine a slice of Japan known as Snow Country. Spread across a wide swath of mountainous terrain that spans Niigata, Nagano, and Gunma Prefectures, this area receives a shocking amount of snow each year. In fact, snow plays such a critical role in this part of Japan that the activities for the remainder of the year often center around preparing for winter.

Now, if you turn to Google to learn more about Snow Country, you’re bound to get a bit confused. Even the ever-reliable Wikipedia is plagued by what can only be described as an extremely vague entry. Indeed, after reviewing the literature, I still cannot make out exactly what constitutes Snow Country, as it seems there are competing definitions. For the purposes of this article, I’ll go with the Snow Country Tourist Association’s definition, which includes the six towns of Uonuma, Minami Uonuma, Yuzawa, Tokamachi, Tsunan, Minakami, and Sakae.

When it comes to the slopes of Yuzawa, Snow Country is internationally renowned as a getaway for skiers and snowboarders. In fact, the region’s…