Tom visited first week of February, en route back to New Zealand, but walked into the biggest flu epidemic for years. We all went down with terrible gastro, and for the first five days one or more of us were lying abed feeling grey. Never mind, he managed to recover in time for day at the Sumo, visit the Ghibli Museum and get into the mountains for snowboarding.

Winter weather in northern Japan is driven from the Siberian high, which funnels a stream of cold air south, picking up moisture over the Sea of Japan, then dumping powder snow on the western side of the Japanese Alps. Graders carve canyons up to 17 meters deep to keep the roads open, and skiers arrive by the shinkansen from the urban industrial east, and by the plane from Australia and Europe. But there are so many resorts and lifts, it is rare to wait more than five minutes or feel threatened by crowds.
We spent three days in Nozawa Onsen, a village of about 4,000 clustered at the base of two gondolas and a dozen of more chair lifts carrying skiers and snow boarders up to about 1,500 meters, and a snow base of 3-5 meters. We were planning to come last year, but the Tohuku earthquake put paid to that. It was a fairly incredible three days, 60 cm of snow the first night, 30 the next, and a blizzard on the third. I decided to give skiing a miss; I took a gondala up then walked 8 km down through the forest in snow shoes. Linda rediscovered skills last used 20 years ago.
Nozawa also has 15 onsen (hot springs) run by the local community, which meant we could soak the aches and pains away, though at 45°C, some of the baths are too hot for me. We stayed at the Villa Nozawa, (highly recommended) and also took soba (buckwheat) noodles making lessons one evening. Excellent break.