Not everything from the previous version of SnowJapan has been carried over to the new site. These were deliberate decisions, made after careful thought and with our vision for SnowJapan in mind. Rather than trying to recreate everything, we took the opportunity presented by a brand new platform to focus on strengthening and expanding the core of SnowJapan.

There are various other changes throughout the site, but the following are the most significant features that have not been carried over.

Archived Forums

The SnowJapanForums were one of the highlights of the site in its early years, with a friendly and active community.

As things changed over time, however, they became increasingly difficult to manage, and we made the decision to close them in November 2014. Since then, they have remained online as a read-only archive.

In recent years, ongoing security issues with the software have made it increasingly difficult to justify keeping the archive online, and the site renewal felt like a good time for the old archived content to be retired.

Route Finder, Photos & Reviews

The Route Finder functionality and the user-submitted Photos and Reviews sections have also not been carried over.

Much of the user-contributed content reflected an earlier period of SnowJapan, when user contributions played a significant role on the site. Inevitably, some of that content had become dated and was no longer a natural fit for the new site.

Thank you

We are grateful to everyone who contributed to these sections in the early years of SnowJapan. Your participation helped shape the SnowJapan of today.

Looking forward

Rather than continue maintaining features that were no longer a natural fit for SnowJapan, we focused our efforts on further developing what we see as its strengths. Much of the information throughout the site has been reviewed, updated and significantly expanded, making it more comprehensive and detailed than at any point in its history.