insights from frontier Japan

A new "two-sword menu" features lunchtime ramen as one "sword" and evening French cuisine as its second. Ramen shop "Asahi Shokudo" in the Northern Hokkaido town of Kamikawa has opened a French cuisine restaurant in the evenings for a limited time. The proprietor's eldest son and French cuisine chef Kamada Yuki (41) demonstrates his skill and has young chefs in the city help out so they can learn his techniques.

On October 3, a light covering of snow formed on the summit of Hokkaido’s highest peak – Mt. Asahidake in the Taisetsu Mountain Range in the Kamikawa region of central Hokkaido – creating a landscape that signals the arrival of winter. However, it was not officially recorded as the first snowfall of the season, as the snow could not be confirmed visually from the Asahikawa Local Meteorological Office in the city of Asahikawa.

The autumn foliage has reached its peak around Taisetsu Kogen Onsen in Sounkyo in the town of Kamikawa in northern Hokkaido. The red rowan and yellow butterfly maple (acer tschonoskii) leaves created beautiful patterns amid the sunlight during the fine weather on September 25.

The full bloom season has arrived for flowers all along the Taisetsu Mountain Range. The path from the Ginsendai trailhead in the Northern Hokkaido Kamikawa region town of Kamikawa to Mt. Hakuundake (2,230 meters high) is an alpine plant trail ascending through the heavens, and is lavishly populated by the indigenous and rare plants that grow wild in the area. Amidst the beautiful weather of July 17, many mountain hikers visited the trail.

On March 25, the town of Kamikawa located in northern Hokkaido in the northern part of the Daisetsuzan National Park, and outdoor brand Columbia Sportswear Japan (Tokyo) signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement aimed at regional activation and the building of a sustainable society by means of outdoor tourism.

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.

The Mt. Kurodake ski slopes in Sounkyo in the town of Kamikawa in northern Hokkaido opened on November 19, making them the first to open in Hokkaido this season.

Rebuilding work was completed for the mountain refuge hut that was previously under rebuilding construction by the Ministry of the Environment on Mount Hakuundake (2,230 meters tall) within Daisetsuzan National Park in northern Hokkaido's Kamikawa Town.

Alpine bearberry shrubs started turning red around Daisetsuzan National Park's Mount Hokuchin (2,244 meters), Hokkaido's second tallest peak. The "earliest autumn colors in Japan" have begun.