Monthly Archives: March 2014

For four months of the year here in Sapporo, we cycle with spiked tires. That’s mid-December till mid-March. At the beginning of winter, in December, the decision to make the change from normal tires to spikes is fraught with uncertainty: It is snowing today, but will there still be snow […]

2014 Spring Tire Change

Last night, Haidee and I and Haidee’s sister stayed the night in a yurt at Jozankei Nature Park in the foothills of Sapporo City. Despite the interior of the yurt only being separated from the walls of snow surrounding it by a thin layer of canvas, it was a warm […]

Jozankei Nature Park in Winter (Day 2)

Haidee’s sister Kylee was in Tokyo on business. Friday last week was a public holiday. Which is all to say the prerequisites for a quick long-weekend jaunt up to Sapporo were lined up for Kylee. Haidee and I decided to make it count for her. The mission was to try […]

Jozankei Nature Park in Winter (Day 1)

I spent most of today wondering why it had taken us three years to visit Takino Suzuran Park, on the outskirts of Sapporo. This gargantuan park, 395 hectares of it all, is a national government run park. In winter it is free to enter, and is a treasure trove of […]

Takino Suzuran Hillside Park in Winter (Sapporo, Japan)

My brother is one of the masterminds behind the Syrp Genie, a timelapse motion control device for taking timelapse footage. With the Genie, I captured the footage below, edited by a friend here in Sapporo, Japan. I used a Panasonic Lumix GF1 camera linked to the Genie. Lenses used included […]

Timelapse: Sapporo Snow Festival and Winter Cityscape (Hokkaido, Japan)

Sometimes we forget how majestic the nature is here in Sapporo, so close to home. Within a 40 minute drive, a prepared individual can enjoy some impressive hills, made all the more beautiful by the annual winter snows. So I organized a short snowshoe trip for the local Hokkaido International […]

Snowshoeing near Hoheikyo Onsen (Jozankei, Hokkaido)