"So this is Hokkaido?" Li Xiang stood atop a high mountain, gazing into the distance. Thick snow covered everything he could see.
Behind him, even the Soya Strait was frozen over, but it was not motionless.
Huge ice floes, some three to four kilometers in diameter, formed a wondrous matrix. In the frigid northern wind, over thirty degrees below zero, they performed a slow and magnificent ballet of ice. Crescent-shaped ice pans interlocked and then separated, again and again. Prismatic ice ridges flashed with blue light as they collided. Occasionally, a ringed seal would leap from the water, creating dark gray ripples between the floes.
Li Xiang had crossed over by stepping on these giant floes. He should now be in Wakkanai City, at the northernmost tip of Hokkaido.
A massive brown bear appeared in his line of sight.
