Satoyama Snow

That Snow Country feeling

The days of unending snow continue. Young people, tired out from shoveling the snow, begin to complain to one of the elders of the village. The old man quietly speaks: “In all the years since I was born, there hasn’t been a year when spring didn’t come.”

Along the backroads of the Shin’etsu Shizenkyo region, walls of snow two meters high and taller line the roads—this is one of the snowiest inhabited places anywhere in the world. In the deepest places, more than six meters of snow will fall; for half of the year, the world is covered in snow.

Long ago, there was a winter where so much snow covered the land that it was impossible to later raise crops. There is a unique, living culture here, born in a land where wisdom and special skills were needed to survive. When the snow kept on falling, people just continued digging, keeping their homes from being buried and eagerly awaiting the thaws of spring.

Today the lifestyle is changing, with many now working in the fields in summer and the ski areas in winter, but the local cuisine, handed down from generation to generation, is one thing that carries on unchanged.

It’s a different world when you head into Snow Country’s forests in the winter on snowshoes. It’s not just a winter activity, but a way to sense the culture, history, natural wonders and lifestyle of the region.