insights from frontier Japan

Mt. Fuppushi (1,102 m), one of the peaks that surround Lake Shikotsu in the city of Chitose in central Hokkaido was blessed with fine weather on March 7, resulting in a clash of the deep blues of the sky and lake surface.

A fight for fish involving two birds of prey began over the drift ice that covers the coast in the town of Rausu in eastern Hokkaido.

The least weasel does not often show itself around people in its natural environment. They avoid contact with their natural predators, the birds of prey and the ezo red fox, and move about amidst shrubs that block visibility with countless branches from fallen trees and marshland area thickly covered by reeds. And because they dig tunnels in the snow when traveling across open areas, large animals cannot give chase.

During the winter season, the woodland along Teshio River in the Northern Hokkaido region frequently experiences severe weather, such as raging blizzards. Even in this environment, wild birds like the Japanese pygmy woodpecker and the wood nuthatch manage to survive, searching desperately for nourishment. If you clear your mind and listen and watch quietly, you can glimpse these wild birds.

The pure white Hokkaido long-tailed tit is about 14 centimeters long. Because its fluffy round body has a snowman feel, it is also called "Snow Fairy".

Heading north across the Tokachi Plain towards the grand Taisetsuzan Volcanic Group that stands tall in central Hokkaido, a pure white "expanse" surrounded by mountains came into view. This is Lake Nukabira in Tokachi region's Kamishihoro Town. Across the frozen lake surface lined with colorful wakasagi smelt fishing tents, the sandy-tan colored Taushubetsu River Bridge awaits.

Cold midwinter days continue deep within the Tokachi region mountains. In a forest covered with up to a meter of snow, I encountered the cute faces of sables.

Lake Mashu in the Akan-Mashu National Park (the town of Teshikaga in eastern Hokkaido) continues to freeze, as the ice spreads over approximately 80% of the lake’s surface.

On February 4 at Cape Kiritappu in the town of Hamanaka in eastern Hokkaido, a sea otter was seen swimming amidst pancake ice patches where the seawater surface had frozen.

A magical gleam reflects off of the frost formations that thickly cover the rock surface of a lateral hole thought to have been dug over 70 years ago in the Sounkyo area of northern Hokkaido's Kamikawa Town.