Partners Information: Welcome to “Illumination of Subzero Forest”!

About 1 hour ride on car from JR Takayama Station, the Subzero Forest is a special winter attraction which has been presented by the isolated mountain inn, ‘Akigami Onsen Ryokan’ since 1971.

Niigata and Nagano are at the historic heart of Japanese skiing, ever since it was introduced by Austrian officer Theodore von Lerch back in 1911. He would be amazed to see how snow sports have grown, and even more surprised to see he has become famous as the face of all things snow related. 

After doing the Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka route on my first visit to Japan earlier this year, I wanted to try something a bit more off-the-beaten-path for my second trip to the country. I heard great things here and there about Shirakawa-go, Takayama and Kanazawa and was excited to learn that these three places were all in the same region of Japan,along a well serviced route from both Tokyo and Osaka-Kyoto.