 Scenes set in Kobe were actually shot in Otaru. Kobe gets very  little snow, whereas Otaru being farther north (on the island of  Hokkaido) gets considerable snowfall. In the scene under the opening  credits of the film, Hiroko walks through deep snow to a group of  houses downhill. She actually starts walking along the lowermost  portion of a ski run on Mt. Tengu that terminates in the street  where the houses are found. Otaru stretches out below the houses,  with Ishikari Bay of the Sea of Japan on the horizon.