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Skiers Beware: Japan's Snow Monsters

by Claire O'Neill

Every winter in Japan's northern prefectures, snow monsters gather on the mountains for their yearly, um, summit.

Snow monsters! Enlarge image i

Snow monsters!

Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images
Snow monsters!

Snow monsters!

Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images

The term in Japanese actually translates roughly to "frost-covered trees," which is what they are — a popular tourist phenomenon in Japan's ski resorts. We found these 2007 photos on our news wires and couldn't resist sharing. Have you ever seen snow monsters?

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Also, here's another photo you'll get if you search "Japan" and "snow." Just saying.

A couple from the Czech Republic bathe with a macaque in Nagano, central Japan, in January. Enlarge image i

A couple from the Czech Republic bathe with a macaque in Nagano, central Japan, in January.

Hiro Komae/AP
A couple from the Czech Republic bathe with a macaque in Nagano, central Japan, in January.

A couple from the Czech Republic bathe with a macaque in Nagano, central Japan, in January.

Hiro Komae/AP

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