“The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country. The earth lay white under the night sky.”
-Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country

Coming from the west, there was no long tunnel, only gradually deepening snow whitening the landscape. Leaving Niigata city, the train clattered through snow-dusted rice fields and clanging level-crossings, and the sun shone on clear roads that cut across the flat landscape. The mountains jutted up abruptly from the plain, and suddenly we were among them, the tracks clinging to the sides of winding river valleys and the occasional houses were white-roofed under a foot of snow.

Our plan was simple: to go home to Nagano Prefecture through the mountains from Niigata. It was the shortest distance, and far cheaper than taking the shinkansen back to Tokyo and the express train home. Simple plans often create the most complicated realities, and they say that short cuts make longer journeys.

Somewhere in the mountains the tiny, one-car train cut through drifts level with the carriage windows. Just after dusk the train pulled into the station at a town called Tokamachi. Over the loudspeakers Japan Rail announced its profound apologies; unfortunately the track ahead was blocked by snow, perhaps tomorrow the trains would be running again, but for now, they were sorry to say, the track were closed in both directions.

We stumbled out of the station and into an unexpected labyrinth. Snow was piled around the roads at twice my height. Sidewalks were winter canyons. Caught in some Japanese literary dream, we pooled our money and checked into a hotel that could have been Murakami’s inspiration for the Dolphin Hotel, and went out to explore the town.

In the morning we drank endless cups of coffee in a series of surprisingly nice cafes, and waited for the trains to start running.

Our winter holidays were at an end, and in the late afternoon we admitted defeat and took the first train back to Niigata, and bought shinkansen tickets back to Tokyo on our credit card. Just before midnight our express train pulled in to the station of the small town we called home that year, and we walked back to our flat laughing with the strange elation of adventure and relief.