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.