Asahiyama Zoo Winter Day Trip with Snowmobile from Sapporo

Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa

Asahiyama Zoo, run by the city of Asahikawa, is Japan's northernmost zoo and one of its most visited. It became famous for designing enclosures around how animals actually behave: polar bears dive past underwater windows and can be watched from a clear viewing capsule, harbour seals swim up and down a vertical glass tube, and orangutans climb ropes high above visitors' heads. Snow leopards, red pandas and wolves are also highlights.

Is Asahiyama Zoo worth visiting in winter? Very much so: animals from cold climates are at their most active, and the snowy hillside setting is beautiful. You have about 100 minutes inside, enough for the main exhibits. Asahiyama Zoo opening hours are shorter in winter, and the zoo closes briefly between seasons, which is why this tour runs only in the winter season. Paths climb the hillside and can be icy, so wear snow boots.

Winter penguins and the zoo in the snow

Penguins are the stars of the zoo in winter. Once enough snow has fallen, usually from late December into March, keepers lead king penguins on a short walk along a snowy path among the visitors, a sight that began as a way to keep the birds active. The walk is held at set times decided by the zoo, so whether it falls within your visit cannot be guaranteed, but the penguin pool with its underwater tunnel is always a favourite.

How to get to Asahiyama Zoo from Sapporo? By train you need the limited express to Asahikawa and then a bus up the hill, which takes time with luggage or children in winter. This tour includes the zoo admission and a direct heated coach, and the guide handles group entry, so you walk straight in. The best time to visit Asahiyama Zoo for snow scenes is January and February.

Ningle Terrace in Furano

Ningle Terrace is a small village of log cabins hidden in a forest of tall trees on the edge of Furano. Each cabin is a workshop or shop selling handmade crafts such as glassware, candles, wooden toys, leather goods and lavender souvenirs, and the cabins are linked by wooden boardwalks. Under a thick coat of snow, with warm light glowing from the windows, it looks like a scene from a winter storybook.

The tour spends about 30 minutes here, enough to browse the cabins and take photos. Ningle Terrace may close on some weekends, public holidays or during local traffic control; on those days the guide takes the group to a similar alternative nearby instead, such as a gallery of Hokkaido winter landscapes. Please buy gifts with care, as the craftspeople make most items by hand.

Shikisai-no-Oka snowfields and the snowmobile ride

In summer Shikisai-no-Oka in Biei is a hillside of striped flower beds; in winter it becomes a vast white snowfield with the Tokachi mountains behind it. The park turns into a snow land where visitors can ride snowmobiles across the hills, and this stop lasts about an hour and a half, the longest of the day apart from the zoo.

The snowmobile ride is optional and paid on site, with single or double machines; confirm with the guide in advance. It is not available in early December or when snow is thin, and in that case no other activity replaces it. If you do not ride, you can still enjoy the open snowfields, snowball fights and photos. Wear non-slip snow boots, warm gloves and a hat, as the wind across the open hills is cold.

The lone trees of Biei

Biei is famous for single trees standing alone on rolling farmland, and in winter, with the fields buried under deep powder, they look like ink drawings on white paper. Several have become well known after appearing in advertising photography, and photographers come from all over Japan to capture them in every season.

On this tour the coach drives slowly past one of these famous trees, with the guide pausing at good spots so you can take photos through the windows without standing in the freezing wind. The fields around the trees are private farmland, so stepping off the road is not allowed. A Biei day trip from Sapporo in winter offers some of the purest snow landscapes in Japan, and this short scenic drive is a highlight for many guests.