Hokkaido

... A pause in recounting our adventures to display the map of Hokkaido, the northern-most island of Japan, where all this took place. Hokkaido is also a prefecture, a designation like a state or provence. It is Japan's largest prefecture.

Most of our visit saw us in Sapporo and Ebetsu, where Buzz, Yukari, and Ren and where Yukari's parents live, respectively. Blog entries also featured Otaru ("Dream Beach" [preceding this post], "Day Trip to Otaru" posts) and Iwamizawa ("Fireworks - 3000! - on Ocean Day" post) and Noboribetsu (ninja theme park and bear park posts). All of these spots are clustered around and near Sapporo, Hokkaido's capital and bolded on the map.