Hokkaido

Whether you are Japanese or English speakers, you could find Amy Chavez's columns interesting. Below is about Hokkaido, northern part of Japan where more and more foreigners live. I think that Hokkaido is not like other parts of Japan. If you are tired of how hectic life in Tokyo is, you should go to Hokkaido. I may think of moving there too.

Hokkaido is not just a location of "Kita no Kuni Kara (From the North Country)." It is getting popular amoung Westerners too in that the place does fit more than other places in Japan. I have been dreaming about going to Sweden to meet a beautiful girl, but if I realized I wouldn't able to make it, I might think of making my dream realistic and decide to move to Hokkaido and live there quietly. In a way, two places are kind of similar, aren't they?

According to the Japan Times:

Everything is big in Hokkaido. Big streets, big stores, big parking lots. Hokkaido doesn't give you that quaint, traditional, slightly claustrophobic feeling you get in Honshu and throughout the rest of Japan. Big gaijin would like Hokkaido.

Hokkaido is responsible for 10 percent of all the food output in Japan. Before I visited Hokkaido, most of the pictures I had seen of it were the side panels of milk cartons. They always featured happy cows grazing in large grassy pastures. One of the most famous dairy brands in Hokkaido is "Milkland Hokkaido." You've got to love a company whose motto is, "every day, every day, for tomorrow." ...

So the next time some foreigner complains about how small, cramped and crowded Japan is, you can tell them quite frankly where to go -- to Hokkaido.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070331cz.html