So, you've skied in Europe and done the North American resorts. Now try Japan. With superb powder almost guaranteed, there's nowhere more exciting to hit the slopes.

Thanks to its location, Japan receives the brunt of icy winds blowing across Siberia in the winter months. These bring with them vast amounts of fresh powder snow, meaning that Japan has some of the best-quality and most reliable powder to be found anywhere in the world - and that makes for some truly incredible skiing.

Zao Onsen in Yamagata Prefecture is home to Japan's strangest snowscape: the Zao "snow monsters". These so-called monsters are actually trees that have taken on weird and wonderful shapes due to the area's unique combination of heavy snowfall and freezing winds.