Heading into the Kubiki mountains in Central Japan is like going into another world. As you make your slow ascent, the land outside the train window suddenly becomes covered in a deep blanket of snow.

Upon landing we headed to the rental car corner to quickly discover that the company we rented through didn’t actually exist. After some finessing with the kind employees at Hertz, we became the proud renters of a cargo van that was our mode of transportation as we explored the Arctic.