Hokkaido

Hokkaido in Winter

Six metres of snow a year, light enough to blow off a glove, and a landscape that goes down to two colours. What the cold is actually like, what it costs, and the three weeks worth planning around.

A snow-covered plain with a line of bare trees under a clear winter sky — Hokkaido · February 2022

Hokkaido gets its snow from the Sea of Japan: cold air off Siberia crosses warm water, picks up moisture, and drops it on the island as something closer to powder than to the wet snow the rest of the country gets. The resorts have built an industry on it. The rest of the island has simply got on with living in it.

What makes it worth photographing is not the quantity. It is that the landscape reduces to two colours, and everything left in the frame has to earn its place.

At a glance

Season: Reliable snow from late December to mid-March
Temperature: −5 to −12°C inland by day, colder at night, with wind on the coast
Getting there: Fly to New Chitose — 90 minutes from Tokyo and usually cheaper than the train
Driving: Winter tyres are standard on hire cars. The roads are ploughed and straight
Quietest: Mid-January, between the New Year holidays and the Chinese New Year fortnight

The landscape goes to two colours

A single conifer standing in an empty field of snow — One tree, one field, one horizon. In summer this is farmland with a road through it.Hokkaido · February 2022

A lone tree on a snow-covered rise against a pale sky — The famous trees of the Biei hills are famous because the snow removes everything else.Biei, Hokkaido · February 2022

This is the one part of Japan where a photograph can be almost empty and still work. Shoot in flat light rather than sun; the shadows on fresh snow are blue, and strong sidelight turns the whole frame into contrast you cannot recover.

Mountains close, and visible

A range of snow-covered mountains above a white plain — January. The ranges here sit close to the farmland, with nothing built between.Hokkaido · February 2022

A frozen river running through snow with mountains behind — The rivers stay open through the winter, steaming where the water is warmer than the air.Hokkaido · February 2022

A wide snow plain with a line of distant snow-covered peaks — The horizon is twenty kilometres away and there is nothing on it.Hokkaido · February 2022

What the cold is actually like

Minus ten in Hokkaido is more comfortable than zero in Tokyo, because it is dry and usually still. The things that catch people out are smaller than the temperature:

Hands. Thin gloves for the camera, thick ones over them. Changing a lens with bare hands at minus ten is a two-minute mistake.
Batteries. Half the usual life. Keep spares against your body.
Condensation. Coming indoors fogs everything. Put the camera in a bag before you go in and leave it there for half an hour.
Shoes. Grip matters more than warmth; the pavements in town are compacted ice.

Bare trees in deep snow with soft winter light — Mid-winter, early afternoon. The light here is low all day, which is a gift rather than a problem.Hokkaido · February 2022

Getting around

Fly into New Chitose rather than taking the train the length of the country: the flight is ninety minutes, runs all day, and is usually cheaper than a Shinkansen seat. From there it is a hire car or a resort bus.

Hire cars come on winter tyres as standard and the main roads are ploughed before dawn. If you have never driven on snow, take the bus to the resort instead — the first hour of a Hokkaido side road is not the place to learn.

A straight road cut through deep snowbanks towards distant mountains — The snowbanks on the farm roads reach the height of a car by February.Hokkaido · February 2022

Three weeks worth planning around

The best fortnight for snow quality is the middle of January to the start of February. The holidays either side of it — New Year, and the Chinese New Year fortnight — are the most expensive and the busiest of the Hokkaido year, and the difference in price is substantial.

Late February and early March keep most of the snow, add two hours of daylight, and cost noticeably less.