Hokkaido in the winter is cold and if you go to the very north coast along the Sea of Okhotsk, you'll find Abashiri (???) 260km / 165mi north of Sapporo.
In February, it's the high season for tourists because this is where you go to see a lot of snow. ice drifts and eat a lot of amazing seafood.

During the city's annual Drift Ice Festival, you'll also find the amazing Okhotsk Yatai Mura Food Market (????????) where local resident come out to celebrate the cold long nights together with good food from the Sea of Okhotsk and copious amounts of beer and atsukan (hot Japanese sake). This is an excellent experience of a lively night market in Hokkaido and worth a stop and bite.

What do we eat at the market in this episode"
? Snow Crab
? Ramen
? Fried Shrimp
? Grilled Oysters ? Hokke Mackerel
? Monster Scallops
? Udon
? Steamed Potatoes
? Yakisoba
? Okonomiyaki

It's hard not to get a little tipsy here, but one thing is for sure, you'll make a ton of friends and eat a lot of food.

There are also other things to do in Abashiri like visit the famous Prison which I covered in a previous episode.
WHAT'S JAPANESE PRISON FOOD LIKE" (Abashiri Prison Restaurant)
?? https://www.youtube.com/watch"v=S2UBy8bkgyE

The Ice Drift Tour: https://ms-aurora.com/abashiri/en/

List of events in Abashiri:
https://www.abakanko.jp/en/information/event.html

Where is Abashiri, Hokkaido"
https://goo.gl/maps/Qv8FKB3jLkR2

THANK YOU to the wonderful people of Abashiri for offer...