In an attempt to revive the popularity of skiing in Japan, an event will soon be held in Yamagata Prefecture to lure back middle-aged people who used to hit the slopes during the go-go days of the late 1980s bubble economy.
The event's bizarre name — translated as "I'll Go Skiing Even If You Don't Take Me" — is a pun in Japanese on the 1987 blockbuster film "Take Me Skiing." The idea was conceived of when Akie Abe, the 52-year-old wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and one of the organizers of the event, went skiing with friends in Fukushima Prefecture in 2013.
"It was my first ski trip in a really long time and was so much fun," she recently said via email.