Hokkaido Travel Guide

Experience Japan's Northern Frontier

The three characters that make up the word Hokkaido mean "north," "sea," and "road." Hokkaido is Japan's frontier, an Alaska of unbroken forests and snowbound plains populated by salmon fishermen and brown bears. While most of Japan was inhabited thousands of years ago by the same families that live there today, the Japanese began to settle Hokkaido relatively recently, displacing the aboriginal Ainu people and taking lessons in agricultural and city planning from Americans back in their Manifest Destiny phase. If history had played out slightly differently, Hokkaido could easily be governed today from Moscow. The second-biggest island in the archipelago of Japan, Hokkaido is home to only 5 percent of the national population, and most of those people live in or around Sapporo, a city that prides itself on beer and winter sports. Outside Sapporo, coal mining, logging, and fishing towns are struggling to survive through tourism. The result, in some cases, is an awkward identity: one farming town with a popular new ski resort chose as its mascot a cheerful skiing potato. The volcanic peaks and salmon rivers will always be part of Hokkaido, but the human presence on the land feels temporary and uncertain. Will the Japanese remain in this northern land? Who will stay longer – the skiers or the potato farmers? Whether you go for the hiking, the snow festivals, or the seafood, a journey to Japan's northern frontier will leave you breathless with its natural beauty and reveal a side of Japan that is a world away from the bright lights of Tokyo or the ancient wooden temples of Kyoto.

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