Beyond the bright lights of Sapporo and the populated south-west, past the powder capital of Niseko, and over the island’s central spine of volcanic mountains – the Daisetsuzan Range – you will find the far east of Hokkaido.
A lost, forgotten and largely undiscovered wilderness of expansive plains, volcanic lakes, endless forests and mountains plunging into frozen oceans. The far east of Hokkaido is where the wild things are – and one of the least explored corners of Japan.
Fig. 1
THE HOKKAIDO FOX
KITAKITSUNE 北狐
The Hokkaido red fox is a sub-arctic specialist thriving throughout Hokkaido. The larger relative to the red foxes of other parts of Japan, this furry creature takes winter in its stride and you will often see them crossing the fields in search of food.
A wilderness unknown and a beauty untouched, the far east of Hokkaido is a land of abundant and unique wildlife and endless nature. Extending from the Daisetsu mountain range in the west to the Shiretoko Peninsula in the east, this is a vast area of lush farming land. It stretches from Obihiro – encompassing the marshlands and the city of Kushiro – to Hokkaido’s most easterly point at the tip of the Nemuro Peninsula, looking towards the remote but not forgotten islands of pre-World War II Japan.
“In the centre of this region is a collection of large and beautiful lakes with smoking volcanoes and steaming lakeside onsens.”
The volcanic area surrounding Teshikaga and the active and ever-billowing volcano of Mt Io includes three of Hokkaido’s most beautiful lakes – Lake Mashu (with what is said to be among the world’s clearest water), Lake Kussharo (with its bubbling lakeside onsen hot springs) and Lake Akan with its powerful significance to Ainu heritage.
From this lake area reaching northeast runs a battery of mountain peaks and forests of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Shiretoko Peninsula. This untouched wilderness is home to Hokkaido’s largest population of bears, deer and the magnificent owashi eagle (Steller’s sea eagle), as well as being one of the last remaining habitats for one of the rarest owls on earth – the Blakiston’s fish owl. Shiretoko is a true wilderness, a wild kingdom where primeval nature continues to reign supreme.
Fig. 2
THE HOKKAIDO DEER
EZO SHIKA 鹿
Hokkaido’s deer are indigenous to the island and the largest of their subspecies. Famed for their large antlers they are an iconic Hokkaido creature. For many centuries the Ainu hunted deer for food and furs, crucial to their survival.
“Encased by a girder of ice in winter, this far-eastern corner of Hokkaido is a cold and forbidding place, but with stunning landscapes.”
Stark and inhospitable winters grip this region and arctic winds bring the sea ice from the northern coasts of Russia. Contrary to appearances, the region comes to life with bird migrations at this time of the year, when the brilliant tancho zuru (red-crowned crane) and whooper swans call the region home. The great owashi eagles soar along the coastline pulling fish from the ocean and roosting proudly in towering nests.
Fig. 3
STELLER’S SEA EAGLE
OWASHI 鷲
The world’s largest eagles, these magnificent birds migrate to the fertile coastlines of Hokkaido every winter. Elusive and rare across much of Asia, in Hokkaido’s east these birds are commonly seen perched in ocean-side tree-tops, eyeing their next catch.
Fig. 4
THE RED CRESTED CRANE
TANCHO ZURU 丹頂鶴
This magnificent bird’s numbers reached as low as 100 remaining in the wild, and at one point were believed to be extinct. Recent conservation efforts have seen the population return to around 1,000 birds.
“Hokkaido’s drift ice, born of freezing conditions in the Russian Arctic, comes from the Amur River on the border between China and Russia.”
Fresh water from the river enters the Sea of Okhotsk, lowering the salt concentration and causing the water to freeze, forming drift ice. Through the months of January and February a magnificent expanse of white pancake ice pieces, collected together in a gently moving oceanic slush, cover almost the entire Sea of Okhotsk, freezing the harbours and enveloping the northern coastline of Hokkaido.
Surrounding Abashiri are several lakes which succumb to the icy white of winter and freeze over, creating beautiful and surreal landscapes and the perfect opportunity for ice fishing in Hokkaido’s largest, Lake Saroma, and Lake Abashiri, an ice fisherman’s paradise. Ice fishing tent villages spring up and bring a unique and beautiful landscape to life with colour and activity. As boats sit on the dry-side in the harbours, banished from the winter waters by the ice, fishermen venture out onto the lake to drill holes in the ice and try to relieve the waters of their hidden stashes of fish.
Fig. 5
WHITE WHOOPER SWANS
HAKUCHO 白鳥
Every year hundreds of white whooper swans migrate to the lakes of the east. These huge birds take refuge in the onsen-fed pockets of Lake Kussharo where the warm waters prevent the edges of the lake from freezing over.
Hokkaido’s east in winter is a subtle flow of shifting white, dancing with moments of colour and life. Powerful life that thrives in sub-arctic temperatures in an inhospitable yet strikingly beautiful land and one of the last wild frontiers of Asia.
This article appeared in Powderlife 2020
Flip through the full magazine online now in English, Japanese or Chinese