insights from frontier Japan

The municipal government of Engaru in the Eastern Hokkaido Okhotsk region placed a trailer house for use as a workation or temporary telework residence on municipally owned land situated along a national highway in Maruseppu nakamachi. The house is fully furnished with necessities including furniture and electrical appliances. The user only has to bring their own bedding. Engaru is currently accepting user reservations, "The location is convenient, and a great setting to experience countryside living. This is a perfect place for people from the city to stay."

Companies and organizations in the Okhotsk region are rushing to respond to The Plastic Resource Circulation Act, which will be enforced in April and aims to reduce the use of disposable plastic products such as forks, spoons and toothbrushes.

Japanese larch windbreak trees and their shadows stretching across the pure white snow in perfectly straight rows paint a beautiful picture that looks like a tapestry pattern. The scenery was discovered in the air above the town of Shari in the Okhotsk region during an aerial shooting session photographing drift ice.

On March 4, the Aurora drift-ice sightseeing & icebreaker ship operated at night for the first time, in Abashiri in the Okhotsk region of eastern Hokkaido. Sixty passengers enjoyed the nighttime views of Abashiri and the drift ice as they shone amid the darkness.

On February 25, an ice freediving event – in which divers swim under the drift ice without breathing apparatus – was held at Utoro Fishing Port in the Shiretoko region of eastern Hokkaido. Next winter, Ozeki Yasuko, a Tokyo resident who was second in the women’s 2021 world rankings in the sport of freediving, plans an attempt on the Guinness World Record for diving under and parallel with the ice, and was confirming the conditions of the icy sea.

In southern Japan, delicate vernal blossoms of plum, peach and cherry now bedeck the branches, proving that a new season has arrived and showing that everything is alive — It’s spring! Meanwhile, in northern Japan, it is snow that coats the limbs of trees, snow that blizzards and lies deeply piled and drifted between forest trees, snow that brightens mountain flanks and threatens to crush the ageing roof beams of abandoned houses, and it is drift ice that covers the sea, proving that the old season’s frosty, vicelike grip remains hard — It’s still winter!! By Mark Brazil

As drift-ice tourism reaches its peak in the Utoro district of the town of Shari in Shiretoko, eastern Hokkaido, “drift-ice bathing” – in which people sit on deck chairs and watch the drift ice at leisure – is gaining popularity.

Drift-ice tourism in the Okhotsk region reached its peak in late February. Amid fine weather on February 26, the ‘Aurora’ drift-ice sightseeing ship made mosaic-like patterns in its wake as it broke up the drift ice while leisurely cruising off the coast of Abashiri.

Cape Chashikotsu is located in the Utoro area of Shari Town in the Okhotsk Subprefecture. There, the drift ice blanketing the Sea of Okhotsk and icicles along the cape create a world of ice. Sunlight is growing in strength, and there is an increasing freedom from the harshest winter climate of whole days in below freezing temperatures. However, at the Shiretoko Peninsula, both the land and the ocean are completely painted white with ice and snow. Low pressures bring clouds, and clouds bring snow. Spring has not come quite just yet.