Winter in Hokkaido

Hot and sunny Okinawa is a beautiful place, but apart from a slight decrease in sunlight intensity, winters do not – contrary to what the locals insist – ever actually get cold. And although the shiny red hibiscus flowers are beautiful, they are no poinsettias.

So after several busy busy autumn months at work, I foraged around the back of my closet for my mothball-smelling seaters and winter jackets, and set off northwards in search of Winter!

As it was, I nearly died of heat stroke walking down the to the bus stop on that very sunny 20°C Chrisrtmas day in Okinawa! But Winter same soon enough as we stepped out of the low-cost aircraft on the tarmac of Osaka airport, and had to walk to the (unheated) terminal building in a blistering wind and inhuman (by Okinawan standards) 8°C. Luckily, they did have heat in the main waiting lounge, and after a slight re-arrangement of sweaters upon my body, I was soon off to Hokkaido.

I had gone in search of snow, and was not disappointed as the plane dropped low over a white expanse of runway.

Having seen my snow, I was now ready to go back home, and I still had a week to enjoy the food, hot thermal springs and snow world of Hokkaido with my friend Nozomi and her brother from Soleil-Oppama!

And her awesome Daihatsu Mini look-alike!

One of the few things I had had time to prepare for this trip was a day doing cross-country skiing. With so many volcanoes and hills, Hokkaido is one of the few places flat enough to have cross-country ski paths. We rented gear at one park right outside Sapporo, and had a very fun afternoon zooming along, with only a few mishaps on the steeper hills.

Setting off for the 6 km track.

A bit of a tricky corner (I was on the ground, too)

Goal!

It was so fun, we went around the 3km track too, just to go past a second time.

Our next Hokkaido experience was ice fishing for wakasagi smelt on a big lake in south-central Hokkaido. We drove up to the town of Furano, right at the base of a huge ski complex, and from there, a bus took us to the lake where small tents had been set up for fishing.

Nozomi, her brother and I shared the tent with a man and his son, and we had quite a productive morning, everyone catching at least 4 fish.

The staff then fried them up right there on the lake, and they were the sweetest, freshest fish I have ever tasted.

My last day in Hokkaido, we went bird watching with some park rangers I had also previously met in Yokosuka. Most of the birds have gone south already, but we did get to see a pair of woodpeckers, and might have spotted one of the very rare black woodpeckers (but it was flying too fast for us to confirm that).

As the start of the New Year is a very important family occasion in Japan, I flew out of Hokkaido on December 31st. But because neither low-cost airlines nor Okinawan bus services are known for their convenient timing, I had to spend the night in Osaka and continue my voyage home on January 1st.
I had hoped to observe the fireworks in Osaka from the airport, but the airport observation tower is closed at night, and I couldn't, at already 11:30, make in in to Osaka before midnight.

CEO of Peach Airlines giving out gift cards

So I didn't get to see any New Year's festivities, but I did exchange joyful 'Happy New Year's with the other couple of voyagers spending the night at the airport. But the rather sad mood was changed in the morning when the CEO of Peach airlines came in person to the departure terminal at 6 am!!! to with us a Happy New Year and inaugurate a new route! Every person flying peach that morning even received a 1000¥ bonus gift!

Happy 2015 to you all!

May your paths take you to many new and interesting places!