insights from frontier Japan

In February, travel companies and hotels facing difficulties due to the novel coronavirus partnered with fruit field farmers in the Toyama area of Minami-ku in the city of Sapporo to offer a monitor tour in which participants get to enjoy activities including making "igloo" huts by piling up bricks of snow and ice.

Monitor tours exploring the potential for Northern Hokkaido tourism promotion using Northern Hokkaido's Wakkanai Airport started on March 23.

One of Japan’s largest-scale manmade lakes, Lake Shumarinai in the town of Horokanai in Northern Hokkaido. In winter, pond-smelt fishing is popular on the frozen lake surface, which becomes lined with colorful tents.

With the goal of making the outdoor sauna a new Akkeshi hallmark, the Akkeshi located private sector organization "Rokuseikai" held a test "Oysters & Sauna" event at the lakeside of Lake Akkeshi on March 12.

The town of Niseko installed a two story play area for children in the Old Starch Factory in the Niseko Central Warehouse Group, located in front of JR Niseko station. Play area usage started on March 8.

The wood charcoal production and sales company Onishi Forestry, located in the Pacific Ocean adjacent town of Shiraoi in Central Hokkaido, is holding a "Takibi Cafe" in its "Bubetsu Forest Camping Field" on Saturdays and Sundays from March 6 to 21. Customers can enjoy a campfire while sipping coffee made with tree sap.

Wintertime in Eastern Hokkaido is packed with amazing scenery and experiences not available elsewhere in Japan, like drift ice, art made from snow and ice, and the ice horizon expanse. The "East Hokkaido Express Bus" is a seasonal bus that travels to all sorts of tourist spots in wintertime Eastern Hokkaido. It gives you easy access to famous spots difficult to reach by car. Visit Eastern Hokkaido aboard buses in search of amazing experiences only available there!

It is the perfect season to see ice stalagmites growing up like bamboo shoots in Hyakujojiki Cave in Otaki-ku, Date City, which neighbors central Hokkaido's Muroran City.

The annual pond-smelt fishing season began at Lake Katsurazawa in the city of Mikasa in central Hokkaido on January 16, and families could be seen gathering there to enjoy the traditional winter activity.