Relive Your First Trip to Hokkaido: Magical Winter Memories & Travel Tips

These photographs capture a magical winter wonderland from two years ago… frozen in time during early January in Hokkaido’s breathtaking Biei region.

Coming from the sunny south, my first true snow experience didn’t actually begin in Hokkaido. I’d previously spent two enchanting winters in Niigata, where powdery snow blanketed the landscape in thick, dreamy layers.

Yet Hokkaido awakened something different in me – that exhilarating feeling of a traveler discovering pure magic. Every snowflake seemed to sparkle with new wonder, every landscape appeared painted with fresh imagination.

Strolling through hushed, snow-laden streets…
Pausing at panoramic viewpoints overlooking the sleeping town…
Witnessing sudden avalanches of snow cascading from pine branches…
Each moment pulsed with an electric sense of discovery.

Though I’m usually hopeless at trip planning (often learning lessons the hard way), Hokkaido unfolded perfectly without an itinerary. I wandered freely, collecting priceless memories like snowflakes on my sleeves.

That first encounter cast such an irresistible spell that now, when winter’s chill arrives, my heart yearns to wander those endless white expanses again – just me and the whispering snow.

Strangely, while it should have been a bone-chilling experience, my memories glow with warmth – like curling up beside a crackling heater, eyelids growing heavy as snowflakes dance outside the window. The cold never reached my heart.