A large area in Yamagata prefecture in northern Japan, famous for the juhyo, the snow monsters, which are trees encased in wind driven ice into shapes that are floodlit at night.

Those formations are the reason most people come, and they are unlike anything elsewhere in the skiing world.

The terrain is extensive with a fair amount of levels and a long vertical, and the snow is deep and consistent through midwinter.

Zao Onsen is a hot spring village with baths that have been in use for centuries, strongly sulphurous and traditional. Sendai is around ninety minutes away and Tokyo about three hours by bullet train.