Formed from the mouth of the Amur River, the drift ice floats into the Okhotsk Sea settling near the coast of Hokkaido. These floating ice floes can be best enjoyed in Monbetsu and Abashiri. Tourists can enjoy “ice breaking” with ships assigned in the two places. Based on my experience, right timing is needed to have the optimal experience in viewing the drift ice. Drift ice season in Hokkaido is from January to March, with February as its peak.

Monbetsu
I have been to Monbetsu twice. The first time was in 2010, my first winter in Japan and the second was last 2014. I have only rode the ice-breaking ship on my second time.
Monbetsu is a city located at the Okhotsk subprefecture of Hokkaido whose main livelihood is cold water fishing. It was said that the Monbetsu crab is the best in Japan as proven by the sculpture of a crab pincer now standing at the waterfront.
On my first time in Monbetsu, it was the day that an 8.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in Chile. It was February 27th, 2010 to be exact, and there was a tsunami alert in Japan. Luckily, it didn’t happen. The drift ice was no longer good at that time, so we decided not to ride the ship.

Monbetsu is the furthest northern point in Hokkaido where the drift ice can be observed. And the best way to observe them is via the ship Garinko-go. The ship breaks through the ice surface using its 4 huge drills. The ship starts taking passengers from the beginning of February.

I did ride the Garinko-go ship in 2014 with some friends. The fare for the ride is 3000 yen. Since the viewing of the ice being crushed was done at the deck of the ship, protection from the very cold sea breeze is a must.
Unluckily, there was not much drift ice though at that time. The ship didn’t do much ice breaking as the clumps of ice were not so big.

Abashiri
Abashiri is also a city at the Okhotsk subprefecture of Hokkaido. It is famous for the prison which is now a museum. And similar to Monbetsu, the drift ice can also be observed in Abashiri.

When we went there last year, we visit the seaside where we can even walk in the ice floes. It was really a great experience, I feel like we were doing an expedition in Antarctica.

We also rode a ship similar to the Gakirinko-go of Monbetsu called the Aurora-go. The ship runs from the middle of January until the end of March with a fare of 3300 yen. The Aurora use its own weight to break through the ice gorges.

As compared with Monbetsu, the drift ice in Abashiri is better during my visit. They were still in big clumps and we can hear the sound made by the crushing of the ice floes. I really enjoyed the short ride.