insights from frontier Japan

On May 21, activity tourism provider Akan Adventure Tourism (Akan Town, Kushiro City) will begin offering "Kamuy Lumina, an Enchanted Night Walk at Lake Akan", a nighttime Lake Akan lakeside forest walk enhanced by lights and video with an Ainu myth theme. A multilingual guide app will heighten convenience for foreign tourists and the hearing impaired.

A "Scenic Night" with candlelight illuminating the winter town was held on February 20 in several spots around the town of Kutchan, which neighbors the town of Niseko.

LED lit lanterns floated into the night sky on February 6 at the first "Tsukigata Hope Festival", held at the playground of central Hokkaido's Tsukigata Elementary School. About 120 Tsukigata townspeople gazed upon the magical light emitted by the lanterns.

‘Sairinka’, an event in which nighttime snowfields are colored with light and sound, began at Tokachigaoka Park in Tokachigawa Onsen (in the town of Otofuke next to Obihiro in eastern Hokkaido) on January 23. Due to the spread of coronavirus infections, visitors are obliged to undergo temperature checks at the entrance, and the scale of the event has been reduced, with some parts cancelled.

On January 29, the Otaru Snow Light Path Festival Organizing Committee made an official decision to cancel the ‘23rd Otaru Snow Light Path’ festival, which was scheduled to be held from February 12–14.

　The ‘Hakodate Kaleidoscope of Light’ event that lights up the western district of the city of Hakodate in southern Hokkaido, began on January 20. Motoi Slope in front of the Former British Consulate of Hakodate is colorfully illuminated, creating a magical atmosphere.

‘Yukitouro’, an annual winter event in which Jozankei Onsen in Minami-ku, Sapporo is lit up with countless snow candles, will begin on February 5 this year.

The Shirogane "Blue Pond" in northern Hokkaido's Biei Town. This is a popular sightseeing spot where the water surface glimmers blue from the reflecting of light by water that contains aluminum. Every year since 2014, an executive committee made up of constituents including the local town government has been beautifully illuminating the area at night for tourists who visit in the winter, when the blue pond surface freezes and is covered in snow.

The 40th installment of Sapporo's traditional "Sapporo White Illumination" started on November 20 in five sites, including Odori Park in Chuo-ku, Sapporo City. 730,000 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been lit up, producing a magical atmosphere.