Rishiri Island, Hokkaido šC The wind cancels the ferry to Rishiri on our first day.
As we descend into Wakkanai Airport, I see waves crashing heavy against the snowy shoreline of northern Hokkaido. Beyond that the sea roils, a stormy green accented with whitecaps that feels cold just to look at. The route to Rishiri, a remote island 20 kilometers off the northwestern tip of Hokkaido that we are hoping to ski, is closed.
Fellow journalist and skier Francesco Bassetti and I are stuck in Wakkanai, a once-prosperous fishing town rendered almost obsolete by the Russian seizure of Sakhalin and its fishing grounds at the end of World War II. The town is Japan¡¯s last major settlement to the north and just an hour¡¯s drive from Cape Soya, where a sign quietly protests the country¡¯s diplomatic tensions with Russia: This is the farthest north ¡°freely accessible¡± point in Japan.
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