Asahikawa is the second largest city in Hokkaido, but 150 years ago it was an Ainu village along the Ishikari River in a mountain-encircled plain. Later a settlement of farmer-soldiers was established and this little gunto (garrison town) developed into…
It had taken nearly seven hours but we made it. The first express train took us from Abashiri on Hokkaido’s far northern coast through five hours of its national park-like interior of forests and plains, or at least that’s what…
We began this year with a trip to a place I’d never thought my sub-tropical wife would willingly visit in the dead of winter: Hokkaido. Hokkaido is Japan’s northernmost main island; its last domestic frontier. Previously known as Ezo, Japan…
Golden Kamuy is the turn of the century story of a war veteran that teams up with a native girl out to avenge her father’s murder as they hunt for a missing treasure of raw gold in an untamed, rugged…