成人快手

Far to the north Hokkaido is truly an island apart, separated by a deep ocean trench from the rest of Japan. Its weather, wildlife and human history, are all distinct from the Japanese heartland. Hokkaido has long, almost Siberian winters which are one reason that the Japanese only colonised the island in earnest during the nineteenth century. Before that Hokkaido was controlled by the indigenous Ainu people who mostly fished, hunted and gathered wild foods to survive. They shared this heavily forested land with a wonderful array of wildlife. Many animals - like the brown bears and chipmunks - came from the Siberian mainland during the last ice age when a land bridge connected Hokkaido to the Sakhalin peninsula.

In winter big birds like red crowned cranes, whooper swans and Steller’s Sea eagles provide plenty of spectacle. In spring when the snow melts and the sea ice recedes, Hokkaido is transformed into the bread-basket of Japan. For a few hot months farmers work tirelessly to produce the kind of crops and livestock more familiar in North America or Europe than Japan - wheat, potatoes, maize, lavender and dairy cows - while Sika deer and red crowned cranes hang about at the field’s edges, looking for the chance of a free meal.