|
 If you visit Japan in winter, you will find a country nearly unpredictable from the one you saw in the other seasons, for winter adds dramatic contrast and charm to the land's intrinsic beauty. And although Japan's extensive length of more than 3,000 kilometers enjoys a variety of winter climates, from the mild to the icy cold, one finds the season most purely expressed in the wealth of snow-mantled mountains, including the peerless Mt. Fuji, set deep amid sylvan sleep. Yet even in these masterpieces of nature's cold handiwork, the magnificent sunshine lets us laugh at thermometer readings.
Northern Japan and the coastal regions along the Sea of Japan have long winters and some of the world's heaviest snowfalls. Here an abundance of softly clad mountains offers wide choices of fields and slopes, and a variety of snow conditions for skiers and snowboarders. With few exceptions, these winter-sports areas and resorts are also blessed with hot springs of diverse medicinal virtues that alone attract people from home and overseas.
The cities, too, far from hibernating, brighten with festive life and color, especially during the year-end and New Year's periods. New Year's is particularly joyous, for it is widely celebrated as Japan's greatest holiday, and many households decorate their entrances with bamboo, pine, and plum boughs. Meanwhile, across the country, people throng to shrines and temples for hatsumode, the first visit of the year, the most popular sites attracting millions of people during the first three days of the year. And although the popularity has declined in recent times, children still play traditional games such as takoage (kite flying) and hanetsuki (battledore and shuttlecock).
But it matters not where you visit; winter in Japan is memorable.
|
