Hokkaido Island..

Hokkaido island is a prefecture in its own right and the largest of the 47 which make up the internal administrative divisions of Japan.

While there is some continuity in structure and climate between the Oshima Peninsula in southern Hokkaido and the mountains of the Tsugaru Peninsula, which lie in north eastern Honshu, in most aspects of its physical and human geographies the island is quite distinctive from the rest of Japan.

It was only fully colonized by the Japanese from the late 19th Century onwards as a bulwark against the expanding Russian empire.  The cultivated landscape of Hokkaido is unique within Japan, with larger farms, pastures and barns which bespeak the influence of a cooler climate with bitter winters.  Hokkaido is the only island in Japan to offer a landscape of rolling fields which is more reminiscent of northern Europe.

It’s cities reflect modern design principles combined with special measures to cope with the winters which include extensive underground malls in the islands capital city, Sapporo.  Much of Hokkaido’s mountainous interior is given over to national parks, wherein live the remnants of the indigenous Ainu population.

~ by bluereefcoral on March 18, 2009.