We've heard that keirin, cycle racing, is really popular in Japan, but haven't seen any signs of it before this cute tram rolled past us this morning in Hakodate. We're not sure if there are actual bears on Hokkaido, but there sure are lots of them in on t-shirts and other diverse merchandise!
With regards to bears - yes, there really are bears in Hokkaido. Especially in the more "remote" areas to the east and to the north. In the Shiretoko area, there are several hundred brown bears ("higuma" in Japanese) within an area smaller than the Helsinki region (Hki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen). Visitors to the nature trails within the national park were rather severely warned about roaming bears and how to avoid encounters.
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