Niseko also offers fishing, biking and rafting in the summertime. Forested Akan National Park is known for its fog-covered lakes, and nearby Kushiro Shitsugen National Park is a wetland haven for white cranes and sea eagles. The city of Furano is famous for its lavender farms that bloom in summer. Hakodate, one of Japan’s first ports to open to foreign trade in the 19th century, has Motomachi, a hillside neighborhood of Western-style wooden buildings from that era. Hokkaido’s modern capital, Sapporo, once hosted the Winter Olympics and now hosts a yearly snow festival with intricate ice sculpture competitions.