The 140-kilometer drive from Tokyo to Nagano's ski country begins before dawn, when the city's neon still glows against winter darkness. By the time you clear the sprawl and hit the Joshin-etsu Expres...
The first time I heard about Tohoku's skiing heritage, I assumed it was a relatively modern phenomenon—maybe something that took off in the 1970s or 80s when Japan's ski boom reached its peak. I was w...
