Hokkaido winter holiday in Japan, self guided

Planet

1. Protection of local environment
This tour visits rural areas to support sustainable travel and tourism, respecting existing paths in nature and avoiding disturbance of plant life. The featured snowshoe experience includes an experienced local guide, ensuring best practices are followed and avoiding disturbing the environment.

2. Wildlife
We support conservation through the Nature Conservancy Council of Japan. We respect wildlife by avoiding quick movements, loud noises, getting too close and feeding animals. To help with the preservation of local culture, we educate visitors about local traditions and crafts, and make the history and culture a central theme of their visit.

This tour features ample opportunities to view incredible wildlife not seen elsewhere in Japan. While this is exciting for many people, it is important to us that guests understand the animals are not to be bothered, fed, touched, and that their space must be respected.

3. Waste
We follow the principles of ‘Leave no Trace’ on our tours. We dispose of all waste properly to avoid contamination of water sources. We avoid as much the use of paper, and do as much of our marketing as possible on-line, using internet fax and avoid printing out paper. When we do print we use double side as much as possible.

4. Transport
We use local public transport as much as possible where this is an option, lessening the environmental impact of extra vehicles on small country roads. We also utilise cycling as an option to explore certain areas in a fun and exciting way while also being environmentally friendly.

People

With rapidly-growing numbers of overseas visitors to Japan, we believe it is vital to encourage exploration of rural communities, lessening the crowding at major urban tourist sites and spreading the economic benefits of tourism more widely. We promote travels to often visit the lesser-known (but equally enchanting) areas of the countries we visit, and this helps to spread the economic benefit of tourism more evenly.

Local Crafts & Culture
The tour introduces clients to the cultural heritage of an area which has a history going back centuries, but has perhaps not been fully appreciated in recent decades. On this tour we also introduce our clients to indigenous Ainu culture at the Akanko Ainu Kotan Village where traditional food is served in the restaurants and there are artisan craft shops which allow visitors to support the community.

We try to avoid the destinations that cater to mass-market tourism, taking our guest to the lesser-known but more rewarding places that larger tour companies tend to avoid. This means our clients money will end up in small community that may have little in the way of work for its young people.