Start in Tokyo, one of the world’s most contemporary cities, and travel upward north to Japan’s winter wonderland. Japan has some cities listed as the world’s snowiest. You will be surprised to learn how deeply snow is ingrained in Japanese culture. The country has one of the world’s most remarkable winter festivals with giant snow and ice sculptures, winter sports, and other fun snow activities. Furthermore with the gorgeous winter scenery, learning Japanese heritage and culture, meeting the Ainu (the indigenous/native people of Japan), dining on great northern foods, and staying in a Japanese inn with hot springs, the experience shall be unforgettable.
Destinations: Tokyo > Suyaku Onsen > Hirosaki > Hakodate > Sapporo > Kushiro > Lake Akan > Utoro > Shiretoko National Park > Abashiri > Tokyo
Accommodations: All rooms are double occupancy, two persons sharing a twin or double-bed room. Breakfast included. A single supplement is extra.
Please Note: A $500 deposit per person is required. After signing up an agent from Deaf World Adventures will contact you to process your booking.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.
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| TRIP DATES | SPACE LEFT | |
|---|---|---|
| February 4, 2025 - February 17, 2025 |
6 Available
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| February 5, 2026 - February 18, 2026 |
8 Available
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Tour Summary
You arrive in Tokyo spending two days in the big city visiting famous landmarks in Central Tokyo, Asakusa, Harajuku, and Shibuya, and meeting Deaf Japanese before you embark to the northeast for your winter wonderland tour.
The Northeast of Japan is famous for its countryside, seasides, high mountains, lakes, rice fields, farms, hot spring onsen, and snow. It is said that the northeast region of Japan collects more snow every year than any weather reporting station in the world. The Sukayu Onsen, where you will visit and stay one night, is believed to be the snowiest inhabited place on Earth. Other cities and towns in the same region rank within the top 5 or 10 snowiest. How exciting!
On this tour, you join a local Deaf guide and travel through the spectacular world of snow-covered landscapes, castle towns, local cultures, and festivals. You will travel the local way, riding on the Shinkansen (aka the bullet train) and public transportation with Japanese people. In remote areas, your guide will drive you.
Our winter adventures include culture immersion activities and some sports. You will ride the Hakkoda ropeway up and over a snowy terrain with snow monsters below. And join millions of visitors to Sapporo’s annual winter festival with giant snow and ice sculptures. You ride in a canoe on the Kushiro River through a marshland that inhabits the once nearly extinct Japanese red-crowned cranes and snowshoe through the Shiretoko peninsula, an important UNESCO world heritage site, home to many wildlife animals and birds. And we dare you to walk on drift ice floes in the Okhotsk Sea. Boots, snowshoes, and thermal wet suits are provided.
The tour includes visits to Buddhist temples, Japanese shrines, and cultural heritage sites with exhibitions and hands-on art and craft activities. Your guide will take you to see some of Aomori’s giant three-dimensional lantern floats made from colorful paper-mâché. You can make an art with the paper there and bring it home as a souvenir. In Hokkaido, you visit the Ainu village, the home of the native people of Japan. You will come across permanent exhibitions of Ainu culture and arts. One exhibition includes amazing wood sculptures by the late Masamitsu Takiguchi who is Deaf Japanese and was married to an Ainu woman. He was an acclaimed artist and had a wood shop in the village that is now run by his son, Ainu, and is a wood carver, too.
Other exciting activities include a ride on an old passenger train with an old-fashioned potbelly stove through traditional villages and snow-covered rice fields. There you will see a splendid 20th-century mansion that once belonged to a famous Japanese writer, Osamu Dazai. You will stop to see the Hakodate harbor, one of Japan’s oldest with the Motomachi district built by foreign residents in 1854. The district has an interesting mix of beautiful homes by foreigners who settled there.
Furthermore, dine on great local foods, and eat some of the region’s best-known seafood and rice dishes. And drink the best local sake, beer, and whiskey while you enjoy the natural scenery, culture, and artistic delights of Japan’s far north.
