Japan's Snow Monsters: Amazing Winter Forest Land of the Rising Sun

In central Japan, there is the Zaozan stratovolcano. In winter, thousands of Japanese people come to stroll along this mountain. There is a ski resort on its slopes, but its main attraction is snow monsters, or, as the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun call them, juhyo.

Such a strong wind blows here that it raises drops of water from a nearby lake and makes them settle on trees. The slopes of Zaozan are covered with pine trees, and the water literally freezes to the needles in a chaotic manner. It is so cold here that icicles often lie in horizontal lines, and then freshly snow settles on all this frosty splendor, forming a real natural miracle. These snow-white grotesque trees, turning into incredible figures, the Japanese called snow monsters. And with such magical trees wrapped in snow, an entire slope is strewn, which becomes like a fantastic forest.

By the way, this is far from the only attraction of Zaozan Mountain. It has several lava domes, and in one of the craters is Lake Okama, also known as the "pond of five colors." The crater appeared after the eruption of the volcano in the 1720s, and later filled with water. It is from him that the wind brings drops of water, which is why juhyo appears. But tourists do not like Okama for this: depending on the weather, the water in the lake is of different colors.