Destination Uncharted Web Series | Episode 3

Few people know it as the snowiest place on earth. But that's exactly what Sukayu Onsen, Japan is: 40-foot snow canyons, blinding blizzards, and the northernmost primates, Japanese snow monkeys. See it all in this episode of Destination Uncharted.

[@yambarudan]

Great clip! It brought back fond memories as I lived in Aomori Prefecture from 2003-2006 between Hachinohe and Misawa in a town called Shimoda. I love how goofballs seem to think they know more about the climate than Meteorologists do.

[@CelebrityCyborg]

I a 52 this year and i never heard of this place and the weather before. How little we know.

[@Mirusel]

Fascinating video! Who knew Japan is home to the snowiest place on earth?! Just wondering, what is the background music to the video? The music really brings the film to life!

[@Excalibur32]

1:18 Footage from the family reunion.

[@ishqwalalove802]

looks cozy

[@lesliemoorhead]

Gosh, if I had known that monkeys can stand the heat better than girls, I would not have gone on half the dates I went on in college.

[@4TIMESAYEAR]

So they're going to get less snow? Right - just like the Brit's children weren't going to know what snow was by now - LOL.

[@Killioa]

Did he say the year twenty-one hundred? So 20100?

[@youngsavages1683]

2100 is pronounced as twenty-one hundred

[@lesliemoorhead]

Doesn't it snow in Siberia, my dear reporter? Why don't you tell us what the snowfall is in Siberia, compared to the snowfall in Japan. Then, I might be listening to your great description of how greater the snowfall rates are in Japan in comparison to Siberia. I don't believe everything I hear, sir. Especially when reporters don't do their homework, and, if they did do their homework, then why don't they tell us they have done so?

[@SkyScraperCityCebu032]

Siberia might be colder than Japan but the set up like this ....the wind comes from the west from LAND MASS (siberia where cold air come from) -> SEA (sea of Japan in between siberia and japan that picks up a lot of moisture) -> MOUNTAIN (japan mainland where it sqeezes the moisture from the sea then dump all precipitation as a form of snow)... If you're also familiar with the Lake Effect snow in US Canada border, you will understand why Japan gets more snow than Siberia or Canada. There's no warm sea west of Siberia that will collect moisture and dump it in Siberia mainland just like the case of Japan's set up.

[@lesliemoorhead]

Yes, a friend of mine did explain this Lake Effect to me. He had grown up in the state of Illinois. Springfield, Illinois is where he said he lived and he said that the Great Lakes up there were affected by this also in the winter months. Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and etc. were always freezing over because of this snow that would form when the precipitation would combine, I guess, with the cold winds and form this snow-like moisture that, he said, would stick to everything. When he was explaining this to me, I was envisioning a cloud-like windswept snowstorm that would be a perpetual blast of ice and cold, like a hurricane, only with moist snow and rain mixed together. Well, good, because I didn't even know that Japan was actually that close to Siberia in the first place. But, I did know that a large part of Siberia was very cold and that it was so cold, practically no one could live and survive there..

[@SkyScraperCityCebu032]

yeah Siberia is very cold far colder than Japan but snowfall totals is a different story. Even if you only have 1C temperature with heavy precipitation can produce accumulation of upto 20 inches. And that sea (Sea of Japan) between Japan and Siberia acts as a snow machine that picks up moisture then comes the Siberian wind that usually blows from Northwest to Southeast from Siberia passing over Japan sea that will drag those moisture towards the mountains of Japan and there it would fall in huge amounts of snowfall almost everyday in winter season. Sea of Japan is far bigger than the great lakes of America. Siberia is very cold but with less precipitation compared to that in the Sea of Japan and in the Great Lakes of US Canada. :)