Cool?
Just barely.
The snow in Japan can accumulate to 12 feet high. The entire area is bowl shaped. The houses have doors on the second floor in some cases. The largest mud ponds are smaller than a small lake. The reserviors are larger and certainly wind can likely clear off some of the snow some of the time. But ice that thick is still opaque.
when you come into the Niigata area via bullet train, you realize that you are entering a series of closed off valleys. Mountains tend to ring the towns and villages.
Welcome to Japan-----