Hokkaido Calling from Sherpas Cinema
“Is it possible to stand where no one has before?.”
In search for the less obvious, Sam Smoothy Jeremie Heitz and Dane Tudor set out to explore Hokkaido, an island with over 15 metres of annual snowfall. And in looking for something different, they found something else.
We are excited to release our latest collaboration with Audi Canada.
More info can be found here: audi.com/quattroroadtrip
Hokkaido formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is the second largest island of Japan, and the largest and northernmost prefecture. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu.[1] The two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel. The largest city on Hokkaido is its capital, Sapporo, which is also its only ordinance-designated city. About 43 km north of Hokkaido lies Sakhalin island, Russia, whereas to its east and north-east are the disputed Kuril Islands.
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian mainland (east of China, Korea, Russia) and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the southwest.
The kanji that make up Japan’s name mean “sun origin”. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon and means origin. Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet “Land of the Rising Sun” in reference to its Japanese name.
Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan’s land area and often are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one. The population of 127 million is the world’s tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98.5% of Japan’s total population. Approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo,[16] the capital of Japan.
Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, particularly from Western Europe, has characterized Japan’s history. From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor.
