Why Japan is the Snow Capital of the World

Oh a lot of people don't know but Japan some of the highest snowfall on the planet today let's enjoy snow well let's not enjoy snow because my face is burning I [Music] remember when I found out I was coming to Japan five years ago somebody mentioned that the country got a lot of snow and I was a bit surprised as I just assumed Japan had a subtropical climate although I remember thinking oh great snow yeah I can build snowmen I can throw snowballs and perhaps best of all I can effectively outrun a CGI plane crash [Music] being raised in southeast England I was always brought up to believe that snow was a rare treat sent from the sky that then we didn't have to go into school because it stopped the entire country from working as if by magic so I assumed by living in Japan and having lots of snow there'd be lots of time off work and of course plenty of time to outrun CGI plane crashes sorry I'll stop using that sequence and then my delight soon turned to horror when I realized that despite the heavy snow I still had to go to work because Japan took care of the snow with ruthless efficiency and every single morning I had to get up especially early to excavate my car worst of all it wouldn't stop it would go away January February March what soon come to realize that if you look at a map of Japan you can pretty much draw a line right down the middle where for four months of the year people are absolutely screwed and it was here that I lived on the screwed side what a lot of people don't know is Japan has some of the highest snowfall in the world if you look at the top ten list of cities by snowfall four of them are in Japan in fact the top two was Sapporo in Hokkaido and al mori city in Tohoku with al mori city getting a staggering three hundred and twelve inches of snow every year to put that in perspective here's a person and this is just three meters of snow have three hundred and twelve inches or seven point nine meters al Mori gets over twice this amount every year so it doesn't mean you can ski for a good chunk of the year and the snow is really good quality powdery snow best of all in north Japan at leads to an extremely rare phenomenon known as snow monsters where fir trees pounded by Siberian winds and heavy snowfall take on eerie shapes looking not too dissimilar from Monster soldiers with drooped heads climbing up the mountain it's almost exclusive to Tokyo and the best place to see them is the Zhao ski resort about an hour from here where you can actually ski through the snow monsters without standing views of North Japan I recently set off with my good friends realtor or to the mountains in search of snow monsters with a detour via the cutest place on earth fox village however I'd be lying if I said it all went to plan it didn't go to plan at all but nonetheless is how we got on anyway they're a few places better to appreciate a snowy winter in Japan that's our forks village an enclosure hidden away in the mountains of Miyagi with over a hundred friendly foxes kill him how do you feel about foxes feel your fan yeah boy on Fox's make the most strange strangest noise it's probably the strangest noise I've ever heard from an animal having successfully negotiated a truce to end the bitter Fox Wars once and for all we rewarded the Foxes with biscuits I still love it as much as I did the first time it's pretty surreal experience [Music] to see the snow monsters we needed to head up high into the mountains about 30 minutes away from fox village and a world away in terms of the weather to reach the very peak of mounds are way beyond the ski slopes we would need to hitch a ride on a snowcat which I was slightly disappointed to discover wasn't a real cat look at that it's a snow cat and we actually get in on this and they're going to put mountains let me know one before no I had this section first time since Billy clear out of the mountains but we will see I hope it's been yes let's see how how do I look perfect the king of style not really not a green the lime green trousers oh I get lost in the snow these people see me from half a mile away wearing those bloody hell would you dare ya what I've text they'll find my corpse in a bright green the pair of trousers [Music] how long take yes hey takes bloody 40 to 50 minutes zero to feed five zero five minutes I had high hopes that we were going to get some amazing footage of snow monsters when we set out but the higher we got the more I realized it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience I haven't been able to see anything outside the windows for the last 20 minutes other than just white just white and blizzard so yeah I'm a little bit up a little bit working on it up here it's pointless 12 outside suppose so I'm taking a precaution those gloves ski ski goggles a scarf fully equipped freak lab although it looks like a legitimately hardcore blizzard outside yeah and I think we are I think we wearing it all I wish would be yeah and we are arriving only once we got to the top of the mountain the realtor or reveal he'd booked us on an off piste ski experience skiing through piles of snow around 4 meters deep I'm rockin alarm a little bit worried given that there's places see your own visibility [Music] that this is but we are for a tree course or we only follow the trail is that I not absolutely terrified but if we get separated don't we yeah but last time we use the garden is that bloody cliff well week like without you guys anymore but now you're fully equipped this time so fully equipped now I won't lie I was a bit scared because not only can I not ski off piste but I especially can't skill paste in a blizzard at minus 12 and so our elegant trip up the mountain to discover snow monsters quickly turned into a nightmarish experience they reminded me above all why I hate Reata wrong so we tried to find the snow monsters but it's a whiteout situation we can see like two meters and it's pretty scary because he went through some snow and it was about four meters deep so I kept these my skis and it's horrible genuinely pretty scary I've never gone through such deep snow my life the snow is so fast so scary thing is every time you fall off it takes so much energy to get back on it's really I don't like it being in the middle of knows where without any energy any sense of direction only about 3 meters visibility it's terrified [Music] how's your portfolio is it good is it exactly what you need isn't it after nearly dying in a Blizzard there's nothing for us another look oh yes it was what for the mountain of death you're all freaked out like a little psycho obscure this is kid was intimate to this visibility nurse is the second time in three months he tried to kill me there was the cliffs the free climbing cliffs of doom and now there was Blizzard Mountain but a thing is I've been failing you've been failure thanks kill me but I need to try to get plot to set you up I would pick up the burgers my hands like so bug is just pick it up and eat it I decided I hate snow I never want to be near it again in any way shape or form except maybe water and ice cubes if you are interested in visiting fox village or the Sumi coward snow park or mounds now albeit when the way there isn't absolutely ridiculous you can find the details in the description box below for now though guys as always many thanks for watching we'll see you next time it's exactly what you need isn't it after nearly dying in a blizzard we didn't die let's go up the mountain of death [Music]

Channel: Abroad in Japan

Views: 1,026,574

Rating: 4.9606881 out of 5

Keywords: japan, snow, fox village, japanese, ski, snow monster, zao, shiroishi

Id: jKU0LpSHXTM

Length: 11min 15sec (675 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 24 2017