Freshies: Mountain Calligraphy in the Japanese Alps

If you’ve had your finger on the pulse of winter sports this season you’ve seen literally hundreds of dispatches from Japan as herds of North American professionals and enthusiasts headed west in search of the most elusive of snow conditions: deep, deep powder. If your engagement in snowsports is more cursory, perhaps you haven’t even realized that Japan is a viable destination for skiing and snowboarding. If this is the case, let me be the first to share the good news. Japan is the real deal. It’s worth going just for the snow, but you'll truly find yourself captivated by the culture, the cuisine, the hot springs, the scenery and a certain simplistic beauty in everything that surrounds you. In Japan you can find an aesthetic and spiritual purity that will set your mind right.