Morning fog crawling over the crop fields. A lovely scene in the Mokoto area.
Three mountains in the direction of the Shiretoko Peninsula are seen in the background- Mt. Unabetsu, Mt. Shari and Mt. Mokoto.
The drift ice was constantly coming up Abashiri River this afternoon💙. The north wind was pretty strong.
Today might be registered by the meteorological agency as the “day the drift ice came to the shore”(流氷接岸). Believe it or not, this is an honest-to-goodness meteorological term😁❗️
The red-crowned crane looking after her 1-week old baby. So sweet❣️
The black feathers at her back aren’t her tail, it’s the tip of her wings folded to the back. Her tail was white.
Preservation measures for these Red Listed birds are taken in Kushiro, and today there’s about 1900 tancho-cranes in eastern Hokkaido. They disperse to various areas in Hokkaido during the warmer seasons, but the majority gathers back in Kushiro in winter time.
The lake is getting frozen and in less than a month it should be 15-20cm thick - enough to do ice-fishing.
Right now the whooper swans that flew in from Siberia are resting their wings on the icy surface.
It’s interesting to see the salmons that were here 2 months ago to spawn still at the bank. (You can see it starts freezing from the center)
It’s like seeing autumn and winter together in one landscape 🦢🐟
Blanketed in Clouds
Lake Kussharo is one place I like that always shows breathtaking views.
On Sunday it was completely covered in thick sea of clouds✨ It was so mystical and unearthy😍
It’s rare to see such thick cloud sea from this location. And we were only at an elevation of 400-700m! We were lucky😊
Steam Fog (毛嵐)
Steam fog” is one of Hokkaido’s breathtaking scenes that we see only in late autumn to winter🌫❣️
We see this phenomenon at sea, lakes, rivers or even at fields on a very very cold morning after a warm previous day.
I took this video on the morning of September 22. It was unexpectedly freezing cold below 10 degrees centigrade🥶
The salmons are now swimming back Abashiri River to their homeland…and they just arrived at Lake Abashiri. They still have a long journey ahead.
Royal Express
It’s quite a sight here in Abashiri to see a luxury cruiser train run since our usual trains are very simple with only 1 or 2 carriages.
Royal Express that also cruises around the Izu area, nearby Tokyo, is an “electric train”. But here where the railway tracks are not electrified, they need 2 diesel locomotives to pull the power generator and the 5 passenger carriages💨💨 Truly eye catching ‼️👀
I like to look down at Lake Kussharo from this angle.
I’m standing at a point that’s only 430 meters altitude. But judging from this lakeside view, this must be the “tree line” here (upper limit of tall trees)🌲🌲
Since the end of December, we've been having more snow than any other years😂
And it's time to get rid of that 'snow wall' that's piled up to nearly 2 meters high along the streets❄❄
It amazing to see the trucks keeping pace with the snow scraper and collecting the snow so rhythmically🚜🚛 I never get tired of watching this team work.
There's a small wood right in front of our apartment where a pair of white-tail eagles have their nest. They're basically migratory birds, but since I see them every winter I'm not sure if they had decided to stay - since some do.
Every morning I see them soaring in the sky looking down at downtown Abashiri😀 A nice window view in winter❄
Flocks of whooper swans returning to Lake Notoro at sunset after spending the day at the fields pecking for food.
In mid October, thousands of whoopers fly as much as 3000km to Hokkaido from Kamchatka and further north. To many of them Hokkaido is just a transit. Whereas some stay on to spend the winter here😁
