insights from frontier Japan

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!

This approximately 18-meter-tall Japanese elm, thought to be about 150 years old, is known as a symbol of Toyokoro Town in east Hokkaido's Tokachi region. This massive tree towering above an expansive grass field is spellbinding, and is continuously visited by tourists and photograph enthusiasts.

In northeastern Hokkaido's Oketo Town, the "Niji no Taki" waterfall along a Kanokozawa hiking course has been partially frozen over.

At a height of 1,898 m, Mt. Yotei in Central Hokkaido is one of the prefecture’s most famous peaks.

Cinnamon fern from the royal fern family of plants have turned a golden color around the shores of Naganuma Marsh (Horonobe Town) in the Rishiri-Rebun-Sarobetsu National Park in northern Hokkaido.

Just when you get to the top, the road plummets right back down again. The straight road that rises and falls over and over again like ocean waves for 2.5 kilometers in central Hokkaido's Kamifurano Town is called "Roller Coaster Street", and it is one of the most popular tourist sites in Hokkaido.

In the evening after a rain, in the mountains at the height of the vivid autumn colors season, a bridge traces a beautiful curve that blankets the rising clouds. The Nakayama Pass section of National Highway 230, an arterial highway linking Sapporo and southern Hokkaido, is an important route with heavy traffic.

A sea of clouds blanketed Japan's largest caldera lake, Lake Kussharo (Teshikaga Town, east Hokkaido), and shone with light from the morning sun. The image was captured on October 10 from Bihoro Town's Michi-no-Eki (Roadside Rest Area) "Gurutto Panorama Bihoro Pass", which overlooks the lake.

A famous sightseeing spot at Lake Nukabira in the town of Kamishihoro in Eastern Hokkaido – Taushubetsu River Bridge on the former Japan National Railways’ Shihoro Line (closed in 1987) – which is normally submerged under the water until September or so, remains unsubmerged this year, making the entire beautiful concrete-arch structure visible.