One of my favorite places on earth to experience these themes simultaneously is in the North of Japan, during my annual group Hokkaido Photo Tour which I offer annually in February. In total, I spend about two and a half months a year in Hokkaido, either on assignments or leading private birding Hokkaido photo tour workshops, or Hokkaido private landscape photo tour workshops or on my multi-themed February in Hokkaido photo tour. Our most popular themes for visiting photographers are birding, and landscape photography, especially popular are the Red-Crowned cranes, The Steller's Sea Eagles and White-Tailed eagles on pack-ice, the Ezo red fox and other wildlife plus several sunrise photo ops that are rated top 3 on our planet from Rausu Hokkaido to the Kushiro region. On other days, my clients and I make our way inland to the high alpine lakes of Hokkaido’s northwest. Comprising of Akanko, Kushiroko, and Mashuko Lakes, which are among the clearest and cleanest on our planet. Hokkaido holds unique opportunities for any photographer, and it is recognized internationally for its diversity of wildlife, cultural and beautiful landscapes.

Across Japan, more than 600 bird species have been recorded to date. The majority, more than 60%, are migratory. Approximately 60 species are endemic or sub-regional endemic. Japan is latitudinally long at over 3,000 kilometers and has 6,852 islands Japan’s flora and fauna are divided by two ecological lines, the Blakiston’s Line, which is between Hokkaido and Honshu, and the Watase Line which is just below Kyushu. Certain wildlife species are found only north of the Blakiston’s Line, while certain other species are only found South of it. These two lines and regions in Japan make it conspicuous among plant species and why such diversity in wildlife species and fauna and flora, that different species need to thrive. Species found north of the Blakiston’s line is countless, but some are the Usury Brown Bear, Ezo Red Squirrel, Yezo like deer, Ezo red fox, Sable, Ezo Stoat, Ezo Salamander, Northern Pika, Blakiston’s Fish Owl, The Steller’s Sea Eagle, among others.