Most Japanese had never heard of the sport called skiing until 1902, when 200 Nipponese soldiers were lost in winter maneuvers on the snow-covered slopes of Mount Hakkota, and the Japanese Minister to Sweden rushed a shipment of Swedish skiing equipment back to his native land for rescue work. In the succeeding decades, the Japanese began to get the hang of the herringbone climb and the Christiania turn, and skiing became one of Japan's top winter sports. Last week, Japan's skiers staged a big two-day national ski meet. The ski-happy Japanese hauled 50 freight cars full of fresh snow out of...
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