A STEAM train ride across a snowfield … an icebreaker cruise through drift ice … fur seals and eagles and one light-up spectacular after another … Put them all together and we have one heck of an appealing winter holiday with a difference in destination Japan. You actually visit five quite different winter festivals in the space of eight days.
The program is the brainchild of Brisbane-based Ken Osetroff whose Destination Management team has been taking Australian tourists beyond the iconic Sapporo Snow Festival (big enough in its own right) for the past 14 years.
On the northern island of Hokkaido you visit the Asahikawa International Ice Sculpture Festival, Sounkyo Ice Fall Festival, Abashiri Drift Ice Festival and Utoro Winter Festival.
Then comes the icebreaker cruise through the drift ice along the World Heritage-listed Shiretoko Peninsula. This is where you can photograph soaring white tailed eagles, sea eagles and northern fur seals on the floating pack ice from the Arctic and bound for the Sea of Okhotsk. Definitely one for the oneupmanship shutterbugs.
Elsewhere on the itinerary you can marvel at ice igloos illuminated from inside at night, frozen lakes, beautiful forests, mountains and marshlands covered in snow.
The steam train ride carries trippers over the snow-clad reaches of the Kushiro Marsh.
The itinerary sets off in February, acknowledged as the best month for birdwatchers to get close to those spectacular Japanese red-crowned cranes.
Tourists creature comforts are attended to in good accommodation at hot spa resorts with fine dining all the way, private coach and multi-lingual guide.
Osetroff has organised for an escorted extension for those who want to snap those photogenic snow monkeys with their little red cheeks and noses, bathing in the hot spring pools of Japan's mountain forests.
The winter spectacular is priced from $4595 for its February 8, 2009 departure.
For details call (toll free) 1300 307 317 or email travel@toursgallery.com | 
