Japan Winter Safari – 2025

(Une version française de ce billet a été publiée.)

Only 2 months until the start of our next adventure, a photography winter safari in Japan…the adventure will start in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido, where we will catch the last 4 days of the Sapporo Winter Festival…I figured if we can’t get a decent Winterlude in Ottawa because of the lack of snow and cold weather, we might get lucky in Sapporo…from there, we will leave on a 2-week winter safari on the Eastern coast of Hokkaido and the Shiretoko Peninsula in northeastern region of Hokkaido…on my bucket list, Tancho cranes (Red-crowned cranes), Whooper swans, White-tailed eagles, Steller’s sea eagles and if I am lucky, Blakiston’s fish owls…to smooth things out with my Sherpa, she will get to stay mostly in onsens and might skip some photography excursions to dip in the natural hot springs.

Once the Hokkaido adventure completed, we will be heading to Jigokudani (Hell Valley) near Yudanaka in the Nagano Prefecture, on Honshu Island, to photograph Japanese snow monkeys…it will be my second visit to the Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park…the last time I was there was in 2013 and I can honestly say it was one of the most rewarding wildlife experiences of my life…the snow monkeys (Japanese macaques), live in the wild but are attracted to a man-made pool being fed from the natural hot spring water in the mountain…the pool was built to keep the macaques in the mountain so that they would not venture to the base of the mountain to take up their daily relaxation in private spas…the monkeys are also fed near the basin area…I can only hope that experience will be as great as the last time…but 11 years is a long time.

From Yudanaka, we will head to Matsue on the South-West coast of Honshu…Mastue is a castle town…there will be plenty of cultural sites to visit, but I am hoping to head to the town of Hino, not far away, to photograph Mandarin ducks, the official town bird…from Mastue we will head to Osaka where our adventure will come to a close.

This should be an exciting adventure as we will be totally outside of our element…navigating the rail system on Honshu, having to ship forward our luggage using the famous TA-Q-BIN forwarding system from one hotel to the next so that we do not get caught trying to manage our luggage on the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train), and, of course, the dining experience…and let’s not forget Japanese sake…I’m sure translation apps will become handy.

I am definitely looking forward to this new adventure…to get myself in the proper frame of mind, I decided to re-create a short video of my 2013 visit to the Jigokudani Snow Monkey Park…I hope you enjoy !