they're heading to niigata prefecture.he fish are raised in natural ponds between spring and autumn and then shipped to customers. when a group arrives though, niigata is knee deep in snow. and this time of year, koi are kept in glass tanks and heated shelters. they need protection from the cold. the visitors are shopping for a small koi that hatched last spring. this man and his brother run one of the many koi farms in the area. like many around here, they were hit hard by an earthquake ten years ago. but now sales are growing 10% a year. thanks in large part to overseas demand. tony has been a koi dealer for three years. he's earned a reputation in thailand for choosing prize winning fish. >> translator: it's kind of scary how often he selects good ones. >> tony has spotted a promising youngster and the negotiating begins. >> expensive. [ laughter ] >> how much? >> they finally settle on a price. $600. tony plans to enter his new recruit in a japanese show this spring. he's also purchased another 40 or so fish to sell in

a low pressure system that brought some very heavy snowfall into places like niigata prefecture where a house collapsed because of all the snowfall there. the low will be tracking further off to the north and east so we may be dealing with some cloud cover for the morning coming up on thursday but then temperatures will start to rebound. we should see a little bit of a warm-up with a high of 10 in tokyo. so a little bit chilly but at least it's going to be a little bit warmer than what we saw on wednesday. a high of 7 in seoul and temperatures are going to drop into the upper teens with some cloud cover, even some sprinkles for hong kong and taipei as we go through thursday. hope you have a good day wherever are you. here's your extended outlook. >>> people in hachinohe northern japan are taking part in a traditional dance festival to pray for a good harvest. 32 groups of dancers gathered in the city center on the first day of the festival on tuesday. dancers wearing horse head hats beat the ground with sticks to wake the earth from its winter sleep. children dressed as the seven deit

causing quite heavy snowfall. 93 centimeters have fallen in niigata prefecture and gusts of 100 kilometers per hour in hokkaido. the combination is causing blowing snow. take a look at the footage coming out of hokkaido. you cannot see almost anything. fierce winds and heavy snow are causing near zero visibility. traffic accidents and power outages have been reported. in hokkaido today, and unfortunately today similar conditions will likely linger into early next -- into tuesday. we're expecting additional 80 centimeters of snow for the hokuriku region 70 centimeters for the tohoku region up to 50 for hokkaido. quite a lot of snow is raising the risk for avalanches. conditions will stay the same in sapporo on tuesday. your high is going to be only minus 5 degrees. actually on both sunday and monday, it was quite warm. so some ice statues melted. but down to minus 5 degrees on your tuesday. however, tokyo and nagoya conditions will improve on wednesday. very warm conditions will come back. across the bigger picture looking quite dry for many parts of china and the korean peninsula. i want t

. >> reporter: recently more and more elderly people have been taking to the slopes in niigata prefecture. >> translator: i've come to pick up my special senior voucher. >> reporter: in 2014 this ski resort started offering a special deal to people who are 66 77, or 88 years old. >> translator: it's a good deal. i can use the hot spring baths and the ski lift for free. >> reporter: the resort manager hopes people who take advantage of the offer will bring others with them. the number of visitors here increased by 20%. >> translator: it would be great if the campaign brought a lot of people to our resort. i hope more senior citizens will come and bring their friends, and relatives with them. >> reporter: another ski resort is appealing to seniors by making an addition to their facilities to help them get around. the steep path to the lift was a challenging climb for older people. so a moving walkway was installed this year. it cost about $170,000. >> translator: it's good. i get out of breath really easily when i climb up hills. >> reporter: the high cost of equipment and transportation pr