Hokkaido
Snow Country
Welcome to Hokkaido, which means "North Sea Circuit". Hokkaido is one of the Prefectures of Japan - very loosely speaking, a Province. The Ritsuryo Provinces were established in the late 7th century in an attempt at central government, but the reality was that the feudal warlords were very powerful and by the 10th century the Ritsuryo system was paid lip service as the official system, while the Han, or Domain, system, was how things really worked. This involved extremely powerful Daimyos with absolute authority over vast tracts of hereditary lands. The Daimyos were subordinate to the Shogun and in theory to the Emperor and the Kuge, or aristocratic class. The Han system was reformed in 1871 and became the Prefecture system, and currently there are 47 Prefectures which in many cases mirror the previous Provinces geographically. Hokkai-do is the only do, or circuit, historically meaning a larger region composed of several provinces. It is also the only Prefecture that is also a Region unto itself. The regions are clusters, if you will, of prefectures. There are eight of them that we'll be visiting as we blow south towards Australia.