At Jigokudani Monkey Park, roughly 2,800 feet above sea level and a three-and-a-half-hour drive northwest of Tokyo, all those familiar images in magazines and nature documentaries of frosted snow ...

The air is crisp, the snow deep and undisturbed. The Japanese Alps tower around us, beckoning us to their slopes. In central Japan, just under two hours from Tokyo by bullet train, Nagano is known ...

2 hours from Tokyo, Nagano is a magnet for skiers and snowboarders, but it also has temples, macaque monkeys and a town Hokusai painted in The air is crisp, the snow deep and undisturbed.