An icy winter has transformed the tall trees of the Zao mountain range into wonderous snow sculptures, known as “juhyo,” or “snow monsters ... and works in Japan, learned about Zao ...

But Fumitaka Yanagisawa, a professor emeritus at Yamagata University’s Research Institute for Ice Monsters and Volcanoes of Zao ... the Sea of Japan. The farthest north was Mount Piyashiriyama ...

Pro tip, though: Skip Japan if you ... visit the snow monsters of Zao in northern Honshu. Cold air from Siberia transforms the trees along the mountain's slopes into snowy ice giants.