[GoNative]

My interest in Japan started when I was with the girlfriend I had before my wife. She had spent a year in Toyama on a student exchange program. Her stories of the amount of snow that fell in the mountains and even down at the coast at times got me very interested. I then read an article in an outdoors magazine from a guy living in Hokkaido that talked about huge amounts of powder snow and snow to sea level throughout the winter. This got me very, very interested.

Anyway some years later I eventually made it to the Niseko ski area in Hokkaido for a 3 week skiing holiday. I was blown away at how good the snow was. I'd previously spent a season in Canada working for a heli-ski company and frankly I was getting just as good snow straight off the chairlifts as I was getting out of the helicopter in Canada. Awesome!
Came back the following year for a 4 week ski holiday and ended up staying for 3 months. After that I was totally hooked and did what I needed to do to get back and live here dragging my wife with me. 7 years later and I can say they've been some of the best years of my life.

My interest in Japan never had anything to do with culture, anime, manga or any of that stuff. It was all about snow and mountains. Japan has an abundance of both. I've certainly not remained here all these years though just for the snow. I've come to very much enjoy the culture and lifestyle up here in rural Hokkaido.