Hokkaido, land of the icy sun

Drift ice (called sea ice in other countries) is big in northern Japan. Winter is obviously the best time to see it in situ, floating on the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Hokkaido, and becoming a junkyard of icebergs on north-facing beaches.

The coastline of northern Hokkaido offers a veritable ocean of drift ice tours from late January to early March: ice-breaker cruises, guided walks on to the drift ice (wearing a dry suit), under-ice views from a submerged observatory and a seaside "drift ice train" (Ryuhyo Norokko). Some hotel lobbies even have display cabinets full of drift ice for guests to look at.

But you don't have to miss all the fun if you find yourself in northern Hokkaido in summer – thanks to the Okhotsk Ryuhyo (Drift Ice) Museum in Abashiri.

You'd expect a museum dedicated to sea ice to be by the sea. Instead the Drift Ice Museum is 10 minutes inland, on a hill overlooking the bay, all the better to monitor changes in drift ice formation. It also has some quirky exhibits.

As soon as we'd paid the Y500 (about $5) admission, a uniformed attendant handed us brown woollen overcoats, like those traditionally worn by Hokkaido's indigenous Ainu people, then ushered us through an automatic door and into the depths of an Arctic winter.

At first it felt exhilarating to be standing in a room refrigerated to minus 20 degrees, surrounded by mini-bergs collected from Abashiri's coastline last winter. Then I started shivering. I remembered I was wearing jandals (it was sunny and warm outside). The glass eyes of the stuffed wildlife on top of some of the 'bergs – a spotted seal, an Ezo red fox and a Steller's sea eagle – had seen it all before.

It didn't help that my human companions were creating a considerable wind chill by twirling small, damp towels. The museum attendant had issued the towelettes with the coats and instructed us to twirl them "about 30 times" to see what happened. Sure enough, the wind chill froze the towels till they were as stiff as boards, which the attendant stacked like plates when we gave them back to her on leaving the room.

The "ice room" is the most hands-on of the museum's five halls but the others are just as interesting. After handing back our overcoats we found ourselves in the "under ice" zone: an entire wall was taken up with tanks displaying tiny winged orange creatures the locals call "sea angels" (their proper name is clione) and phytoplankton called ice algae that live under the drift ice and at the bottom of the food chain, luring other species that make this a world- class fishing ground.

Upstairs, we watched a video showing the township of Abashiri transformed by four seasons in 10 minutes (with time-lapse cinematography and Japanese narration, but we got the drift, so to speak). Then we found a room with displays explaining, in English as well as Japanese, what sea ice really is, how it forms and how it is being affected by global warming.

It turns out drift ice is one of those see-it-while-you-still-can phenomena: the average temperature of the shallow Sea of Okhotsk has risen by 0.7 degrees in the past 100 years and is expected to rise three to four degrees in the next few decades. There is only half as much drift ice as there was a century ago.

This being Japan, even a small museum has its fair share of retail outlets. There were two gift shops, one of which specialised in edible souvenirs, such as cans of curried seal, horse and bear meat. There's also a restaurant – thankfully serving none of the above – with views to the coast.

One of the museum's highlights is on top of it – Tentozan (Mt Tento) Observatory. Autumn and spring are best for sightseeing and you can see the ice drifting down from the Siberian coast in winter but, even through the summer haze, there are views to Lake Abashiri, where locals go ice-fishing in winter, and, oddly, Abashiri's maximum-security prison. A 100 yen buys you a closer look through the observatory's binoculars.

The best part about visiting this part of Hokkaido in summer, however, is that the local delicacy is at its most appealing.

Drift icecream, made from drift ice, tastes like vanilla. A stall near the museum entrance sells cones for Y300.

You can wander out into the museum's gardens on a hot summer's day with the taste of drift ice on your lips. Mmmm.

TRIP NOTES

Getting there: Japan Airlines flies daily from Haneda (Tokyo) to Memambetsu in northern Hokkaido. The museum Okhotsk Ryuhyo (Drift Ice) Museum is in Abashiri, 30 minutes from Memambetsu airport, and is open year-round. Admission is Y520 ($6.75).

- © Fairfax NZ News