Jewelry Ice: The Most Beautiful Ice in Hokkaido Japan

In winter, Hokkaido becomes a magical white wonderland. From the end of December, light fluffy snow falls softly from the sky (and sometimes more heavily in a snowstorm), blanketing everything in a cover of pure white. Along with the snow, the temperature plummets into the negatives, and most rivers and even the ocean in some places, freezes over. In a small Hokkaido town known as Toyokoro, something very special happens where the Tokachi river meets the Pacific Ocean. The result of this is known as Jewelry Ice.

How The Jewelry Ice Forms

Even in winter, Tokachi has many very sunny days. This sunshine combined with the tides causes pieces of the frozen river to break off into the ocean. The waves then tumble this ice, causing it to become smooth and rounded. These pieces of ice are then washed up on the beach. This ice is incredibly clear and dazzles brilliantly when light hits it. This area is in Eastern Hokkaido and the most popular time to see this Jewelry Ice is at sunrise. Depending on the time of day, the Jewelry Ice can look quite different!

It’s only possible to see this beautiful natural phenomenon from mid January to the end of February, and even then the amount and types of Jewelry Ice you may see are very dependent on the temperatures and weather. I only recently learnt about this special winter view, and it’s surprisingly fairly close to where I live now. I like to do something to experience and enjoy each season, so for winter, this was high on my list!

Adventure Time

Since the beginning of January, I’ve been watching the Jewelry Ice Instagram page very closely to see when the best time to visit would be. Around mid February, I was ready to go on the weekend, however the weather changed and the forecast said it would be snowy. In total I postponed this trip twice. My next day off arrived, surprisingly a Wednesday because of a public holiday (The Emperor’s Birthday). I was planning to go regardless, but I thought I’d invite a friend to join me. My Japanese friend Yasuko agreed and we planned to leave at 4:50am in order to arrive for the sunrise at 6:15am.

I woke up early at 4:30am and was all ready to go, however, my friend hadn’t arrived yet and I was a bit worried that she was perhaps still asleep because it was early. I decided to go to the convenience store to get some hot coffee and snacks, and by the time I finished, she’d arrived! She was a bit late as her car (like mine) had become frosted overnight.

The drive there was really easy and beautiful because the sky gradually became lighter before sunrise. We were treated to the most beautiful pinks and oranges with a few cute fluffy clouds. Just based on the weather on the drive, I had a good feeling that the Jewelry Ice would look beautiful.

The Beautiful Jewelry Ice

We finally arrived just as the sun began to rise. The walk onto the beach, whilst a bit slippery, was still a bit easier than the usual sandy beach walk would have been (due to the small layer of snow atop the sand). It seems many people had the same idea as us and the beach was full of people taking photographs of the Jewelry Ice in the sunrise.

We continued walking along the beach, even after the sunrise had finished, finding all kinds of differently shaped Jewelry Ice. Some were clearer than others, some rounder and some were incredibly shiny. It was a delight taking photographs of them and watching the waves roll onto the shore.

In addition to the amazing Jewelry Ice, I was also intrigued to see that the snow on the beach had been swept up and now resembled the patterns you often see in sand dunes. Yasuko told me that in Japanese this was called Fūmon 風紋, which means wind crest in English.

Here is a collection of some of the many photographs I took.

The ice was truly beautiful and I had a great time seeing them with my friend! If you visit Hokkaido in winter, then I highly recommend checking out the Jewelry Ice if you have the chance. Have you ever seen ice like this? Let me know in the comments!