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※ This video is part of <World Theme Travel - Winter to Spring, Hokkaido/Kyushu Parts 1-4> broadcast from April 3 to 6, 2023. A land that experiences two seasons at the same time! Let's go to Hokkaido shining with pure white snowscapes and Kyushu where pink spring blooms. Symbols of Hokkaido's great nature! Shiretoko's drift ice and pollack flocking to the "end of the earth"! The miracle of the canal that brought hundreds of thousands of people, the lights of Otaru The people of Watsamu digging out hope in the snow Akan National Park, a wild paradise with storks and hot springs The pink cherry blossoms of Oita that brighten Kyushu's spring first When the spring flowers bloom, come, the messenger of spring, Fukinoto From winter to spring! Meet Hokkaido and Kyushu that live their own seasons. - It's winter in Hokkaido, the northernmost part of the archipelago of Japan, which is long like a bow, but spring has come to Kyushu! The locals think that spring has come when the cherry blossoms bloom, and they go on a flower outing! Walk along the Kawazu cherry blossom road that is in full bloom with pink buds and enjoy flower viewing at the Youra Peninsula in Oita! Head to the mountain villages of Oita in search of Fukinotou, a special wild vegetable eaten when spring flowers bloom. Let's enjoy the taste of spring with Takako, who runs through the back mountains in search of Fukinotou when the snow melts. Otaru, a port city in Hokkaido, the northernmost island! It's hard to believe that we live in the same time zone; everywhere you look, there's snow! It's all white. Vertical traffic lights to prevent snow from accumulating and the daily lives of residential areas that fight against the snow every morning are common sights in Hokkaido. Today, we help Hiroshi, who is shoveling snow without fail, and take a peek into the daily lives of Otaru residents who live with snow. The Otaru Canal, a famous tourist attraction in Otaru, holds a snow festival every year. During this time, Otaru residents walk around the canal with snow in buckets! To meet the great nature of Hokkaido, we head to Akan National Park in the east. We meet woodpeckers, wild foxes, and squirrels at Lake Akan, a caldera lake created by a volcano, and enjoy a wild time. There is a real "Swan Lake" in the national park. You can enjoy an open-air hot spring up close to winter migratory birds that visit Lake Kussharo. We introduce a special lake full of wilderness. - Hokkaido, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk, where you can enjoy a variety of fresh seafood all year round! We begin our journey toward the "taste of snow country" in Otaru, Hokkaido, where snow remains until April. We exchanged greetings and ate seafood rice bowls at the Tengu-san Observatory, which offers a panoramic view of Otaru. What does rice bowls made with seasonal seafood taste like?! In Wassamu, a small town in the center of Hokkaido, they use snow to farm. We found an excavator digging up snow! Thinking that they were busy clearing snow, we went closer and found cabbage under the snow. A special way to use snow in a snowy country! If you leave cabbage harvested in the fall in the field and wait for snow to pile up on top, it naturally becomes a cold storage. Winter cabbage stored in this way is much sweeter than cabbage harvested in the fall, and it is so famous that when you think of Wassamu, winter cabbage comes to mind! What does cabbage preserved in snow taste like? Shiretoko Peninsula, “where the land ends.” In winter, welcome guests come with drift ice. Drift ice from the Amur River and the Sea of Okhotsk flows all the way to Shiretoko, creating a spectacular view. The drift ice that covers the Shiretoko Peninsula makes it hard to tell if this is land or the sea. There is a guest who comes with the drift ice. It is pollack! Rausu, a representative port city located on the Shiretoko Peninsula, is rich in marine resources thanks to the nutrients brought by the drift ice. Captain Ishida and his dream of a full catch head out to sea to catch pollack, a Hokkaido specialty that can be found during the winter drift ice season. - Kyushu, where active volcanoes shake, is called the "Land of Fire." We meet people who have preserved their traditions for generations. Sakurajima, the representative island of Kagoshima at the southernmost tip of Kyushu! Sakurajima, which resembles a painting, is an active volcano that still erupts large and small. Enjoy an outdoor footbath while looking at the puffy clouds spewing out from the crater, and try a seafood rice bowl. We meet Mr. Honda, who has been making Dengaku, a local dish for three generations in Kumamoto, located in the center of Kyushu. Dengaku is a skewered dish made with tofu, potatoes, freshwater trout, konjac, etc., covered in sauce and grilled over charcoal! He treasures his family's secret miso sauce as a treasure, and insists on