When Hilary Wendel, a Tokyo-based photographer and good friend, asked me to tag along as she photographed "Japan's scariest monsters," I was apprehensive at first.
Fortunately for us both, the Snow Monsters of Zao in Yamagata Prefecture are more impressive than terrifying.
They are actually Aomori fir trees that have been coated with extremely wet snow and ice carried by a cold Siberian Jetstream that also freezes them almost solid in some of the most peculiar shapes I've ever seen.
And they're easy to reach from Kanto too -- tickets from Tokyo Station to Yamagata by Shinkansen cost ¥21,800 round-trip and the train takes 150 minutes to get there.
If you're skiing and not just snapping, you might want to consider sending your equipment and luggage ahead by Japan's extremely convenient takkyubin service so as not to start the trip off with a sardine-can experience on the subway. (CNN)
When Hilary Wendel, a Tokyo-based photographer and good friend, asked me to tag along as she photographed "Japan's scariest monsters," I was apprehensive at first.
Fortunately for us both, the Snow Monsters of Zao in Yamagata Prefecture are more impressive than terrifying.
They are actually Aomori fir trees that have been coated with extremely wet snow and ice carried by a cold Siberian Jetstream that also freezes them almost solid in some of the most peculiar shapes I've ever seen.
And they're easy to reach from Kanto too -- tickets from Tokyo Station to Yamagata by Shinkansen cost ¥21,800 round-trip and the train takes 150 minutes to get there.
If you're skiing and not just snapping, you might want to consider sending your equipment and luggage ahead by Japan's extremely convenient takkyubin service so as not to start the trip off with a sardine-can experience on the subway. (CNN)
