Does the white powdery snow make you want to jump in and make some snow angels or maybe ski your way down in exhilaration? Check out Niseko, Hokkaido, it’s possibly the best place in the world for winter sports.

Kushiro is just a park. The whole place is not just an uncivilized jungle, it is actually quite a pleasant town. Here’s a video of Kushiro town during summer of ‘06

Kushiro Shitsugen National Park (釧路湿原国立公園, Kushiro Shitsugen Kokuritsu Kōen?) is a national park located in the east of the island of Hokkaidō, Japan. It was designated as a national park on 31 July 1987, and is the 28th and most recent of Japan’s national parks. The park is known for its wetlands ecosystems.

Kushiro Shitsugen covers an area of 268.61 km² and contains the largest tracts of reedbeds in Japan. During the Ramsar Convention of 1980, in which Japan participated, the park was first registered as a peatland with raised bogs. In 1967, the wetlands themselves had been designated as a national natural monument. For that reason, access is strictly limited and the landscape, most typical of Hokkaidō, has been preserved.

Reeds, sedges, peat moss wetlands, black alder thickets, rivers which bend freely back and forth, groups of lakes and marshes, and other wet ecosystems comprise a varied environment. The park is considered to be a valuable haven for wild species such as the Red-crowned Crane, huchen (Hucho perryi), Siberian salamander (Salamandrella keyserlingii) and dragonfly (Leucorrhinia intermedia ijimai), among others.

Check out its official site: Kushiro National Park

The Windsor are an international chain of hotels that is well known around the world. If you are visiting Lake Toya, check out Lake Toya Windsor, it looks like a really posh place amidst the beautiful land and mountainous range.

A great accommodation place to check out when you are in Kitanomine ski area of Furano. This hotel is run by a family on the slopes of the infamous ski resort. It has 65 rooms only and if you are looking for a family style warm accommodation, this is definitely the place to go. It is also very aptly located and made convenient for skiers and snowboarders who are in Kitanomine for the jump. The hotel is also close to restaurants and amenities. Prices for rooms in Petite Hotel Suzuran is also reasonable with 8400Yen for two people inclusive of tax and two meals.

Read the review here.

The Shimokita Peninsula (下北半島 Shimokita-hantō) is the remote northeastern cape of the Japanese island of Honshu, stretching out towards Hokkaido.Shaped like an axe pointing west, the peninsula has a thin “axe handle” connecting the mountainous “axe blade” to mainland. The coasts maintain a thin scattering of population but the interior is as remote a region as you can find in Japan. The largest population center is the drab town of Mutsu.

No matter how you look at it, Shimokita is a long way from anywhere.
By air

The closest airports are in Misawa and Aomori; from there you’ll have to take a train or bus. Misawa has direct service to Tokyo and Osaka; Aomori also has direct service to Nagoya and Fukuoka.
By ferry

Higashi-Nihon Ferry offers service from Hakodate on Hokkaido to Oma at the northwestern tip of the peninsula. There are between two and four services per day, depending on the season. Drivers and bikers are encouraged to make reservations in advance, especially in high season.

Shimokita Kisen offers service from Wakinosawa to Kanita, crossing Mutsu Bay.
[edit] By train

The JR Ominato Line from Noheji (on the Tohoku main line) travels up the axe handle to Mutsu. Direct Shimokita rapid service trains are available from Aomori and Hachinohe (the latter being the northern terminus of the Tohoku Shinkansen line from Tokyo). The private Shimokita Kotsu Railway stopped running in 2001.
By bus

Direct buses run from Tokyo to Mutsu, taking over 10 hours in the process.

A little video downtown Shimokita:

Mount Yotei

Niseko (ニセコ町, Niseko-chō?) is a town located in Abuta District, Shiribeshi, Hokkaidō, Japan. Although in Japanese, Niseko principally refers to a municipal area, overseas, the name has come to refer to a wider area of ski resorts encompassing Hokkiado’s Mount Yōtei and Annupuri ranges. It is one of the most famous ski resorts in Japan known for it’s powder light snow and spectacular mountainous outback.

Niseko is comprised of seven ski areas, in order of size:

* Niseko Mt. Resort Grand Hirafu, centered around the village of Hirafu is perhaps the best known field but is actually part of the neighbouring Kutchan township.
* Niseko Higashiyama is the less popular neighbor of Hirafu but has the best front valley skiing.
* Niseko Annupuri is hit with the strongest winds and worst weather in the area, causing occasional closures.
* Niseko Hanazono
* Niseko Moiwa
* Niseko Weiss

Niseko also has back-country ski-courses that are unofficially on the maps. To the furthest right of Annupuri lies Sannozaka, an area prone to avalanche but with high quality snow. To the far right of Hirafu lies Higashi One, also prone to avalanche but with a challenging back-country terrain. Near the lower half of Hirafu is a forest route called Strawbery Fields, which is perhaps the most famous run in Hirafu. Climbing Mount Yōtei also provides back country skiing.

Hirafu is the perhaps the most foreigner-friendly resort thanks to the many Australian skiers and snowboarders who have been frequenting their slopes. The town is like a western town within Japan where all menus are in English and imported food items are in abundance.

Because of its northern location, Niseko is fed by weather streams that come from Siberia rather than from Eastern Japan. The resort experiences a consistently high and light snowfall. The snow is not as dry as other areas in Hokkaidō, but the volume is high, with the average snow depth in March reaching 351cm.

Niseko was named as the world’s second snowiest resort in December 2007 with annual average snow fall of 595 inches (15.11 metres)/ First place went to the Mt Baker Ski Area in Washington State with 641 inches.

Niseko resort

I would liken this place to the Alcatraz Island in San Francisco where it’s main attraction is a prison museum. The Abashiri Prison a Meiji-era facility used for the incarceration of political prisoners. The old prison has been turned into a museum, but the city’s new maximum security prison is still in use. It is an important local port city and railroad terminal. This little city has some mini attractions that will make the trip worth your while. Since the area is a fishing port, you can expect to find some of the freshest catch, in particular crab. Gastronomically, Abashiri would be a great place to have seafood.

Also, like every city in Hokkaido, Abashiri has it’s own brewery that churns out bottles of Abashiri Beer. You can take a tour in the brewery and do some beer sampling.

There are two other museums around the city to check out Museum of Northern Peoples (北方民族博物館 Hoppō minzoku hakubutsukan) and Museum of Northern Peoples (北方民族博物館 Hoppō minzoku hakubutsukan). The latter is a museum devoted to pack ice, a strangely devoted skill which is oddly a subject of fascination for the Japanese.

To get to Abashiri, here are some options:

By plane
The nearest airport is Memanbetsu, 16 km south of Abashiri. Buses connect to/from the JR station before and after flights (25 minutes, ¥720).

By train
Abashiri is the terminus/junction of the JR Sekihoku Line (石北本線) from Asahikawa and the Senmo Line (釧網本線) to Kushiro via the Akan National Park.
Okhotsk Limited Express trains run from Sapporo to Abashiri. There are four daily departures, reaching Abashiri in 5 1/2 hours at a cost of ¥9440 each way. There is no charge for the service with the Japan Rail Pass.

By bus
Night buses from Sapporo (around ¥8000) are the cheapest way to get to Abashiri. Buses arrive and depart from Abashiri Bus Terminal, a short walk east from the JR Abashiri station.

Akan National Park (阿寒国立公園, Akan Kokuritsu Kōen) is a national park located on the island of Hokkaidō, Japan. Akan is a volcanic area with craters spread throughout the forest. The park is famous for its crystal clear lakes, its hot springs, and its large marimo – a type of algae that takes the shape of a ball, which only grow in the northern hemisphere. It is the only place where marimo of appreciable size are formed naturally in Japan.

There are many places in Japan that are beautiful, but none more beautiful than the wonders of nature.

Okurayama

When in Sapporo, you need to visit the Okurayama Observatory. This former Olympic ski jump stadium is about 90 Meters high and opens during winter time for the public. When the ski jump is not in used, you can go up via cable car on top of the ski jump for a spectacular view of Sapporo. Definitely a must visit.

Mount Moiwa
Another place to visit for a great view of Sapporo is Mount Moiwa. Go at night and you’ll see how beautiful the landscape of a city is from a bird’s eye view.

Pictures of the old buildings
Not too far off is the Historic Village of Hokkaido (kaitaku no mura). Basically, this tiny town is like an open air museum that features 60 buildings on a time continuum from Meiji to the Taisho periods.

The Historic Village of Hokkaido is located in the Nopporo Forest Park (Shinrin Koen) outside of Sapporo. From Sapporo Station, take a local train on the JR Hakodate Line to Shinrin Koen Station (about 15 minutes) from where the museum is a 5 minute bus ride or 15-20 minute walk.