I have been operating a culinary and cultural tour of Japan for a very limited number of participants – less than dozen people in the past years. For the 2016 trip I am taking you to a very different destination: a visit to the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido that is focused on the natural environment as well as the amazing local Japanese culinary scene. The tour has been thoroughly researched and experienced during my recent trip to Hokkaido, Japan.
Here is the introduction to the Tour:
HOKKAIDO with HIROKO, May 22- June 3, 2016
An Introduction
Welcome to Hokkaido with Hiroko, a unique tour combining the best of the culinary and natural worlds of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. You may have been to Japan many times; perhaps you have even joined one of Hiroko’s tours. If you have been to Japan you have probably visited Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and many other places in the country. But if you have not been to Hokkaido – all around this amazing island – you have not experienced a totally different Japan that Hiroko will bring to you. Hokkaido has a “frontier” feel. Outside of Sapporo, its only major city, it is not densely populated. That population is less than 3.5 million. But Hokkaido is home to so much that is different from the rest of the country. A simple example: when you are out in the farm country, you will not see small rice paddies, but expansive fields growing wheat, corn, fruit, potatoes, cattle for beef and dairy products and most of the green vegetables found in Japan, and the barns are large buildings with colorful metal roofs. This could 
well be Europe or parts of America. Hokkaido has many national parks featuring nature that has not been disturbed by extensive human interference or habitation. Volcanic mountains – one less than 75 years old – and beautiful caldera lakes are separated by broad, fertile, cultivated valleys. Though the timing of this tour won’t allow you to enjoy them, it is the home Japan’s premier ski slopes and resorts. And, of course, the best seafood in the country – fish in so many varieties, shrimp, crabs of many kinds, oysters and the famous Hokkaido uni & scallops – come from its nutrition filled water that results from volcanic materials and from the mixing of cold and warm currents. Socially, Hokkaido is very different from the rest of the country. Its original population, the Ainu, is a Caucasian race related by genetics, language and custom to American Eskimos, Canadian First Nations people and Siberian indigenous inhabitants. The influences of these people are everywhere in place names, foods and local customs. And they survive to this day as a community that is, with other indigenous peoples, rediscovering and cultivating its roots. Extensive settlement by outsiders did not begin until the late 19th century, and the railway network tying the island together was not completed until 1926. This comprehensive tour personally researched and arranged by Hiroko welcomes your participation in this wonderful experience available to a very limited number of participants. 
Please send me an e-mail at hiroko@hirokoskitchen.com, if you want to learn more about the tour; day-to-day schedule from May 22 – June 3, 2016, hotels, activities, fee of the tour, tour condition, application, etc. Space is very limited.