The Hokkaido Bears @ Showa-shinzan Bear Ranch - by Lly

The Hokkaido bear, or Ussuri brown bear (Ursus arctos lasiotus), is Japan's largest land mammal, with males weighing 150–250 kg. They are native to Hokkaido, shy by nature, but have caused a record number of encounters and a fatal attack recently, leading to high-level warnings in 2025/2026. It is the only bear species inhabiting Hokkaido. While some brown bears in Hokkaido have a dark coat, they are not black bears. 

Seeing the bears in the wilderness is a dream of nature lovers. Despite the large population of the bear in Hokkaido, estimated at roughly 11,600 to over 20,000 in 2026, the encounter of the bears in the wild is not common. The best chance for us during our Sapporo trip was the tour we booked for the day 5. 

Our last stop of the tour included two locations, Mt Usu and the Showa-shinzan Bear Ranch. We choose to hike on Mt Usu ( go to trail head by Gondola) and to visit the bear ranch. With total stop time being 2 hours, after hiking, we had only 20 minutes to spare. When we checked at the ticket office, the staff told us that we had enough time.

Torii of the bear ranch

Going inside, I realized instantly that we had more than enough time, the whole path is less than 100 meters long. That is not to say that there’s not enough to see. 

In the ranch, the bears are grouped by ages, and sizes. The bear kindergarten is the first pit I saw

On the left side of the path, I saw baby bears playing on the “playground”. Their bodies are covered in furry black fur, but their faces are bare and in pale brown color. At first I thought that’s because they were just babies, but actually the adults look exactly the same way. Those baby bears were so cute together, pushing the tires and climbing the stations.

baby bears

bear kindergarten 

The adult bears are in separate enclosures. Most of them were just lying there and resting, walking around aimlessly. Except for two bears in the water hole, they started by nuzzling, then cuddling, fighting, and getting excited. A couple of other bears walked by nonchalantly, leaving the two enjoying themselves. The two bears in the water were actually engaged in courtship wrestling. After a while they mated.

Courtship wrestling full episode!

There are several cages on the left hand side of the walkway, one bear in each enclosure, and they roar, they wave, and they beg for food. Apparently these bears were trained to do those things.

The last “den” hosted even larger bears. There is a path to go down to the same level as the bears and watch them through the barred windows. Those bears are huge! The are twice as tall as I am. When they stand up, they are just massive. I certainly do not wish to meet one in the wild.

Note

The tour guide provided a couple misinformation: 

1. there were two types bears in Hokkaido - black bears and brown bears  - in fact there is only one species.

2. The bear ranch was a sanctuary - it is not, it is a commercial zoo.

I did not know those claims were false until I did some research when writing this blog.

Moerenuma Park @ Hokkaido

Moerenuma Park was designed by the architect Isamu Noguchi. The whole site, including the glass pyramid, is a work of art. We visited there on the last day of our Hokkaido trip.

It took 1 hour bus ride from Sapporo city center to the park, and when the bus reached the stop at the park west entrance, we were the only passengers. We basically had the whole park to ourselves except few locals exercising.

West Entrance to Moerenumma Park

The center of the park is wide open, with a couple hills which have simple clean profiles

The large sculptures dotted the park are simple, abstract and elegant.

A stainless tetrahedral truss structure stands out in the green landscape, like an alien object. It is over a grassy mound, and next to a performance platform. It is intriguing. The reflective stainless steel contrasts with the surrounding nature, alien, an accentuation of the landscape.

This is Tetra Mound, 13 meters in height, the truss is 2 meter in diameter.

Tetra Mound

Climbing on to the play mountain by the Tetra Mound, looking around,  a white sculpture, like a cut open fruit caught our eyes. It resembles the split apple in New Zealand. The color contrast of the white sculpture, green grasses, and dark green trees, are sharp, and soothing.  

It is The Music Shell, a unique outdoor performance space. Situated directly at the base of the granite slope of Play Mountain, it serves as a functional art piece where nature and music merge. 

Music shell

There are a few other functional art work in the park at the playground area, such as the conical shaped slide in the Cherry forest, and the glass pyramid.

slides

The glass pyramid reminded us of the glass pyramid outside the Louvre. This glass pyramid is a quiet shelter by Mount Moere. It is also a gallery with photographs showing the 4 seasons at the park, and a museum of the architect Isamu Noguchi. The platform on the rooftop provides views of the whole park, the moat surrounded the park, the downtown Sapporo, and snow covered mountains in the distance.

The river southwest of the park, serves as a boundary of the park

The moat

After the glass pyramid, we walked up the Mt Moere - in fact a hill. Two straight stairs, one curved stairs lead to the mountain top. Look up or look down, the views are clean, and profiles are simple. 

As we completed the loop around the park, we came across another large open area, with wall at the far side, and a paved trail along the wall. There are trees by the wall, on the other side of the wall from our viewpoint. Outside the wall there are several fields including a baseball field. 

It was a tranquil place, the tranquility was broken occasionally by bird chirping in the woods, and overhead in the sky.  

Entering the park, we saw many large birds flying overhead, black wings, sometimes showing brown feathers - obviously some species of hawks - they are black kites (Hawks - new bird species to me, #208 on my list)). They flew confidently, steadily, scanning the landscape beneath them.

In contrast, there were light colored large birds flying closer to the river water  - grey herons. They fly calmly and elegantly barely flapping their wings.

Note; there were a least one black kite couple, and one pair of grey herons.

The big birds don't chirp or make calls frequently. The smaller birds, sparrows, magpies, brown eared bulbuls ..., they sing, chirp tirelessly.

In the cherry forest, while enjoying the blooming cherry blossoms, I heard bird chirps and saw a medium size dark color bird hopping around, pecking at cherry blossoms. After a few tries, I finally capture the bird on camera - it was a brown eared bulbul, a new species on my list (#209)

Walking up the Mt Moere, I heard a pleasant bird song, repeating intermittently, looking around, I did not locate any birds, finally I saw a bird with black head, white collar, and white breast, and a tint of brown throat - it is Siberian Stonechat (#210)!

This is a great park for simple elegancy, tranquility and nature!!

Black Kite ( type of Hawks)

A pair of Black kites

grey heron

A pair of Herons

Sparrows

Asian Siberian Stonechat

Brown eared Bulbul in cherry blossoms

 

Late Season Skiing at Niseko Annupuri

Our late season skiing trip to Niseko Annupuri from April 24 - 26 was proved to be a little bit too late especially due to the warm up of the weather during that time. Our original plan was to ski full day April 25, half day on April 26, and return to Sapporo on the afternoon of the day. We eventually changed the plan, skiied only one day and relaxed in the morning of April 26, returned to Sapporo earlier than planned. 

However we enjoyed the trip to Niseko Annupuri - for the cool weather, the white snow,  the thrill of downhill speed, and the sight of Mt Yotei, aka ezo Fuji. We also encountered a red fox on the trail!

We arrived at the ski resort around 4:30pm, the ski trails were closed already.  We went on to a side ski trail to get a feel of the winter, and cold. When we were back to the hotel to prepare for next day's ski, we found out a ski goggle was broken, and the ski gloves were in sad shape. So we bought new ones to replace them at the resort's shop.

mountains were partially covered by the snow

trees were budding

The next morning, we had an early breakfast buffet, and went to the rental store to rent ski equipment early shortly after 8am in hope to get the equipment for the first run of the day on the slope. The rental store won't open until 9am. We had to wait. There was no one else there for the rental, so we got on to the trail in 10 minutes, and onto the lift by 9:20am, after purchasing lift tickets!

On the mountain, the ski trails were fully covered by snow. Ski condition from mid-mountain was decent all the way to base, we enjoyed one run there and found the thrill of downhill skiing. We then moved a one level up via the gondola.

From upper mountain, the trail is much longer, ~ 2+ mile, and of course larger vertical drop ~ 1900 ft. The ski condition was better than lower mountain. Better yet, we had great view of Mt Yotei.

Mt Yotei, aka ezo Fuji, is a volcano, which resembles  mt Fuji, but much smaller and shorter - 1898 m vs 3776 meter in elevation. We had two runs from the upper mountain, and decided to go to the upper most lift station to the championship course. This course is steep, was not groomed, the trail were covered by man made moguls, not a great place to ski for us, we could ski on the trail, but did not enjoy it. We only skied on it once, and went back down to the gondola. 

We had a few more runs and it was time for lunch (13:15). We had a picnic right outside the upper mountain gondola station, a bare patch with dry rocks. During this period, a few skiers took off from the top of the trail, one family came to take pictures, then the dad skied down, the mom and the child took gondola downhill. A more interesting episode was that a guy carried his child on his back with a car seat like carrier, and skied downhill!

The slope looked ok

sitting on a dry rock, we had snack for lunch and enjoyed people watching

a guy carried his child on his back going downhill!

We stayed on the gondola trail - panorama trail until 3pm. The we went to the lower green trail - paradise trail + junior trail to cool down. 

The last run of the day was dramatic: Lily missed the exit to the rental shop, so we went up the mountain one more time than planned. When we were close to the landing place, we saw a large animal walking on the slope. It tuned out to be a red fox!

Wildlife sight on ski trail!

In total we skied a little over 6 hours, almost non-stop except the lunch break. 

It was a fabulous day of skiing - blue ski, white snow, thrill of downhill ski, sight of mt Yotei, and red fox, nevertheless we decided not to ski the next day because of the wet snow and forecast of a even warmer day.

Red Fox

A fabulous day on the trail

Note -

Apparently the trails were not groomed.  It was actually a common practice for resorts open for late seasons. The main reasons include: 1) Lack of Snow Base: Grooming equipment requires a certain depth of snow to operate without damaging the terrain or bringing dirt and rocks to the surface. 2) Warmth and Ice: When temperatures fluctuate significantly above and below freezing, grooming can create "rock-hard" skating rinks. 3) Groomers may choose not to groom to avoid creating icy conditions. Soft/Wet Conditions: Grooming wet, warm snow can cause equipment to get stuck and results in deep, unusable ruts when the snow refreezes.

Chasing Cherry Blossoms in Hokkaido

We found out that cheery blossoms would arrive late in April in Hokkaido by chance during the planning of our ski trip there. It was late for the whole Japan, but the peak time for full bloom for Hokkaido.

Here is the chart for 2026 Japan Cherry Blossom timeline.

Arriving at Sapporo, we saw scattered blooming cherry trees here and there in some streets. There was one big Cheery tree with blooming cheery blossoms right outside the hotel. 

We started looking for the perfect locations for Cheery Blossoms, many trees together and ideally some cheery blossom tunnel.

A standalone Big Blooming Cheery Tree

Checking cheery blossom reports for locations within walking distance to the hotel, we decided to go to Hokkaido University Campus and Odori Park to get better views of the Cherry Blossoms in the chilly morning of our day 2 at Sapporo. It was windy, and the wind chill made the temperature freezing. The wind also broke up the clouds, and brought out the blue sky which made the cheery blossoms looked so much more beautiful.

On Hokkaido University campus, the Cheery trees were spread out. There was one big blooming cheery tree by roadside, and adjacent to blooming yellow flowers, another hanging over a pond with mandarin duck couple in it, and yet another over a patch of snow! 

Cherry Blossoms on Hokkaido Campus

Cheery Blossoms over a pond with a pair of mandarin ducks

Cheery Blossoms over a patch of snow remanent

Around the red brick old government building, there are two big ponds situate in its front, along with many decorative trees and  blooming cherry trees, which make it a nice park.

The red bricks, green octagonal tower, and soft pink blossoms create a high-contrast, picturesque scene. The overstretching cherry blossoms over the pond offered their own charm!

The Odori park is a 1.5 km long, rectangular shaped urban oasis, lined with trees, the park has cherry trees dotted on either sides, a large, fragrant rose garden on the west side, fountains throughout the middle, and interesting statues scattered around. 

Cheery Blossoms along the Sosei River

The spaced out cherry blossoms had no size effect, each formed a beautiful, charming tapestry with its surroundings, had their own elegancy and charm.

The long distance bus rides between Sapporo and Niseko, and from Sapporo to  Shikotsu-Tōya National Park and surrounding areas, provided a different vista of cherry blossoms, in the valley of mountains, by the country roads, on the banks of the caldera lakes  ...

Cheery Blossoms along Lake Toya

When we returned to Sapporo from skiing at Niseko, the Cheery Blossoms were at their peak bloom. We visited the more well known cherry blossom viewing area - Maruyama Park along with adjacent Hokkaido Jingu, have over 1000 cherry trees, providing a very dense display of blossoms, as well as varieties of cherry blossms -  featuring primarily Ezoyamazakura (Sargent's cherry) - vibrant pink, Somei Yoshino - light pink, and Yae-zakura - vibrant, deep pink to pure white. 

There were a lot more densely populated cherry blossoms, and there were large crowds as well.

There were so many people at the park, the walking crowd stir up dust cloud on the trail to the Hokkaido Jingu - like cars running over a dirt road. There were also a food street to serve the crowd. Viewing Cherry Blossoms is a festival!

Despite the crowd, we enjoyed viewing the Cherry Blossoms, and also enjoyed hot grilled corn and chocolate coated banana ice-cream.

The Cherry Blossom Tunnel by the plum garden

The Cherry Blossom Tunnel leading Hokkaido Jingu

On the last day of our stay at Sapporo, we visited Moerenuma Park, which was designed by the architect Isamu Noguchi. The whole site, including the glass pyramid, is a work of art.

There is forest of 1,600 cherry trees in the park consist of Ezoyamazakura, Kasumizakura, Minezakura, Yaezakura, and Somei-Yoshino. Due to relative inconvenience to get there from city center (1 hour bus ride, and the bus is infrequent), there were few people there to view the fully blooming Cherry Blossoms.

We, however, enjoyed the Cherry Blossom, almost, all by ourselves!

View of Play mountain from the cherry forest

part of the cherry forest

a children's slid is a piece of art in the cherry forest

Note

Generally the further north, the later the start of the bloom, and the shorter the blooming duration

Conversion of the cherry blossoms timeline pictorial into a chart reveals something not obvious

1) Kyoto, Tokyo and Kawaguchiko are exceptions in duration. Kyoto, Kawaguchiko had longer duration, and Tokyo has shortest duration

2) Fukuaka, Senai are exceptions in starting date