Snow country (Japan) Snow country (Japan) Snow country (雪国 "yukiguni"; also, more prosaically, 豪雪地帯 "gōsetsu chitai" ["heavy snow area"]) refers to areas in Japan characterized by heavy, long-lasting snowfalls. The rather poetic can refer to any place with heavy or deep snows and is generally understood as a reference to the Sea of Japan side of Honshū (Japan's main island) and the area encompassed by the Japanese Alps, a series of mountain ranges that make up the island's backbone. In its broadest meaning, "snow country" means the belt along the Sea of Japan from Yamaguchi (in particular, Shimane) in the south to Honshū's
Japan its major contributions to science and modern technology. The Japanese word for Japan is , which is pronounced "Nihon" or "Nippon" and literally means "the origin of the sun". The character means "sun" or "day"; means "base" or "origin". The compound therefore means "origin of the sun" and is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun". The earliest record of the name "Nihon" appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, the "Old Book of Tang". At the end of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan requested that "Nihon" be used as