Why do people talk about “Snow Country”?
Although a number of the resort regions seem to refer themselves as “Snow Country”, the term actually comes from the name of the much-loved and very famous Nobel prize-winning novel of the same name written by Yasunari Kawabata. The novel starts with the infamous line “The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country. The earth lay white under the night sky”. The long tunnel mentioned came out into Echigo Yuzawa (better known simply as Yuzawa) in Niigata Prefecture. This was where Mr Kawabata stayted while he wrote his “Snow Country” masterpiece and the setting of the novel.
