December last year, our family took a short trip to Niigata Prefecture from Tokyo.
Born and raised in a tropical country, I was always fascinated with winter and cold climate, because that was what sounded exotic to me. I think a lot of my Malaysian peers feel the same. A lot of my friends preferred to visit Japan during winter to have an entire different travel experience from our usual hot climate.
And Niigata is the perfect destination because, well, Niigata is also lovingly called the “Snow Country” across Japan. Other than the famed skii resorts with powdery snow, Niigata has many other attractive charms, surrounded with splendid nature, clean coasts with beautiful sunsets, hot springs, friendly folks and the best thing for us – absolutely delicious rice.
