Did you study at JAIST? Sorry to ask, but when you said "deep in the mountains outside of Kanazawa", that's the only university that popped up in my mind that was more open to foreigners(which I assume you are/were).
It was Kindai (Kanazawa Daigaku). They moved from the castle inside Kanazawa to a new campus outside the city. It might be a stretch to say deep in the mountains, it was probably a 20 minute bus ride from downtown Kanazawa. I haven't been there in 25 years and I imagine it has all changed significantly.