hokkaido– tag –

Asahikawa: Hokkaido’s second city and a former strategic military front line. Discover its unique history, its 150 rivers, and why we are turning our furniture factory into a world-class destination. Experience industrial tourism in a city where even businessmen fish like James Bond.

【Snowy mountains are really harsh】 Last week a logging company invited us to a mountain tour to see how trees are logged. While we were going up the mountain plowing through snow, a staff member talked a lot about the troubles they hav...

Snow has already been used as a renewable energy source here. Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan, is the largest producer of potato, onion, and rice in Japan, and snow is used to refrigerate those crops during storage.

As I wrote before, our home town is the mecca of wooden furniture, where we have the world's famous chair collector, Noritsugu Oda. The number of chairs in Oda Collection amounts to about 1350, including most of the world masterpiece chairs, of course!

In the early 90's when I was a kid, the zoo was so boring and a little creepy. It was like a horror movie scene of Stephen King: there were few people; animals were deathly still; old and rusty attractions made a squeak (in the amusement area in the zoo). In 1995, the zoo took the first step to the great comeback by the inauguration of a new director.

Kiyomi Mikuni is the most famous Japanese chef born in Hokkaido. He grew up in extreme poverty. Soon after graduating from junior high school, he started to work for a rice dealer for free meals and the opportunity for attending a night cooking school. In Hokkaido, there are some restaurants supervised by him. Fratello Di Mikuni is one of them.

【What is done cannot be undone】 More than 30 years ago, Japanese main railway operations were run by the government. Since the full privatization, many rail lines have been abandoned especially in rural areas like here in Hokkaido. If ...

【Real estate bubble in Niseko】 Ginza is the area in Tokyo well known as a luxury area. The above image (the thumbnail image) is Ginza 4th block's intersection. The area holds the highest land price record in Japan: about 500,000 USD/sq...

A deep, often humorous analysis of Japan's "floor life" culture. We examine the architectural wisdom of tatami, the ritual of removing shoes, and the political reasons why the most comfortable sofa still can't beat the floor. As a furniture maker, I discuss this cultural paradox and introduce the design philosophy behind our MOLA sofa—a personal hideout designed for true, unrestricted relaxation.

【Hokkaido is the kingdom of natural resources, though...】 Hokkaido is a name-brand area even for Japanese people, proudly enough. If saying "I'm from Hokkaido" outside Hokkaido, we will have a blast in chat. People will come to us and ...