It’s one of the most grueling races on the planet, a thousand-mile odyssey run every winter across the Alaskan wilderness. But with the return of the famed Iditarod, the exploits of Dallas Seavey, dogsledding’s most dominant figure, continue to raise questions about the fate of an embattled sport.

For two centuries, an extreme protectionist policy barred all foreigners from setting foot inside Japan…except for on one tiny island, a cramped cultural crossroads where anything could, and did, happen.