QUICK LINKS
PREAMBLE
This was another year of exploration for us at HokkaidoWilds.org. Hokkaido is like a bottomless, limitless canvas of adventures. Website visit numbers were once again the highest we’ve ever seen. This is super heartwarming – we’re so happy the information we’re creating is useful enough for people to come back to the site.
The surge in site access numbers has, however, pushed our operating costs up considerably. This is getting us thinking about how to make sure we cover the costs we need to cover (as always, we still only cover a tiny fraction of our route documentation costs).
Carry on down for all the details of what we’ve been up to this year.
KEY POINTS
ROUTE GUIDES
Our day jobs somewhat cut into route guide writing time this year. We had the least time we’ve ever had to devote to creating content for HokkaidoWilds.org.
WEBSITE ACCESS
HokkaidoWilds.org again saw record numbers of visitors to the site in the 2024 financial year, with just under 35,000 visits in January 2025.
WEBSITE COSTS
Somewhat new for us this year was a surge in website costs – from Google Maps API fees to Fastly.com CDN fees. Map sales and donations from readers are not covering those costs.
POSTS ADDED OVER THE YEAR
These are new route guides we published on HokkaidoWilds.org from April 1st 2024 till March 31st 2025.
SKI TOURING ROUTES
We published an eclectic selection of six ski touring routes during the 2024 fiscal year. A highlight included the enigmatic Bozu-yama hut trip. Not the greatest snow, but a great spot to spend a night in a hut.
See all ski tour routes: https://hokkaidowilds.org/skitour
PADDLING ROUTES
Compared with last year’s 23 routes added to the site, this year’s six routes is a paltry number. But this includes a massive goal we’d had since taking up sea kayaking just three years ago – a full circumnavigation of the wild Shiretoko Peninsula in eastern Hokkaido. Easily one of the best non-winter adventures to be had in Hokkaido, if not in the whole of Japan.
See all the paddling routes here: https://hokkaidowilds.org/water
HIKING ROUTES
It was another quiet year for hiking for us. Just the one route posted for 2024 – the lovely Teuri and Yagishiri Islands backpacking trip.
See all the hiking routes here: https://hokkaidowilds.org/hike
OUTREACH
PROJECT WORK
- Hokkaido District Transport Bureau’s Backcountry Project | We were invited to help out with the Hokkaido District Transport Bureau’s Hokkaido Backcountry Ski Project (full details here). This was the first time government in Hokkaido has stepped in to understand backcountry participation among foreigners in Hokkaido. The project was led by Daisuke Sasaki, and deftly managed by Shunsuke Ninomiya. It consisted of trailhead cameras, two large-scale online and trailhead surveys, analysis of winter mountain SAR incidents, and more. All the reports from the project are below (also see this page on the Bureau’s website).
- Project Overview (PDF)
- Final Report (PDF)
- Appendix 1 – Online Survey Descriptives (PDF – prepared by Rob)
- Appendix 2 – Analysis of Hokkaido backcountry incidents (PDF)
- Appendix 3 – Research of overseas solutions (PDF)
- Appendix 4 – Basic safety messages (PDF)
- Appendix 5 – Trailhead survey and pre/post comparisons (also includes lift-access vs. non-lift-access backcountry comparisons) (PDF – prepared by Rob)
PUBLIC APPEARANCES
As with previous years, we were happy to be invited to speak at a number of events and symposiums.
- RGS-IBG Annual International Conference – Rob was accepted to present at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference in London. There, he talked about using Japan government map data for making the HokkaidoWilds.org printable maps (August 28th, 2024 – presentation data).
- Rishiri-Rebun-Sarobetsu National Park 50th Anniversary Symposium – Rob was part of a panel discussing the allure and issues surrounding Japan’s northern-most national park, at this Ministry of the Environment-hosted event (October 5th, 2024 – link, presentation materials).
- Hidaka Regional Tourism Network Meeting – Rob was invited to speak at the Hidaka Regional Tourism Network meeting about using the web to market outdoor adventure in the region (16th November, 2024 – presentation data, newspaper article).
- Daisetsuzan National Park 90th Anniversary Symposium – Rob took part in a panel discussion, hosted by the Ministry of Environment, and shared his thoughts about the future of the Daisetsuzan National Park, particularly around branding and sustainable user-pays systems (15th December, 2025 – details, presentation materials).
MEDIA APPEARANCES
- Powderlife Magazine – Powderlife Magazine, a lifestyle and travel publication out of Niseko, did a story on Hokkaido’s backcountry huts. They kindly used some of our photos we’ve taken of Hokkaido huts. See the full article here.
- Backcountry Magazine – We were interviewed by Betsy Manero for her extremely well-researched in-depth article about this history and contemporary state of backcountry skiing in Hokkaido. You can get the article in print or digital PDF here.
COMMITTEE WORK
- Daisetsuzan National Park Liaison Council | Rob is now a member of the Daisetsuzan National Park Council, a group made up of a broad set of stakeholders connected to the Daisetsuzan National Park. Rob’s duties so far have mainly consisted of reviewing English translations of national park materials.
GOALS FOR THE FUTURE
Our 2025 goal-counter speaks volumes to our preferences for outdoor activities over the last five years. We definitely have a soft spot for ski touring and paddling, it seems. It’s unlikely we’ll hit the hiking route and cycling route goals by the end of this year, but we’ll get to them eventually!
Progress towards 2025 Goals
WEB ANALYTICS
Page views were up 60% in 2024 compared with 2023. First-visit user numbers were up 30%. More than ever, we’re feeling greatly indebted to Andy the HokkaidoWilds.org backend guru for setting us up in a way that can handle all this extra traffic. Somewhat reflecting the encroachment of the day-jobs into time (and energy) we’ve otherwise had spare for creating HokkaidoWilds.org content, our social media (Instagram and Facebook) has seen ups and downs on the engagement front. That said, when we do post something, engagement from our passionate audience is good – around 10% or so. Our audience on socials continues to grow, with Instagram sitting at over 5,500 engaged followers (thanks you!).
SITE ENGAGEMENT
Perhaps most stark when it comes to visitors to HokkaidoWilds.org in 2024, is the marked increase in page-views. That is, while new visitor numbers were up 30%, page-views were almost double. This means that compared to previous years, we’re seeing people spend much more time on the site on each visit.
Website access by source
Sessions by source
Sessions by region
Users by Region
Instagram and Facebook Engagement Rates
Instagram and Facebook Audience
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS (Apr ’24 – Mar ’25)
In terms of income, we were humbled this year by readers’ donations. Almost 200,000yen (US$1,340) in Kofi and Paypal donations. Thank you so much! This was much more than previous years, and reflects the increased visitor numbers to the site. 50% of these donations go to the Hokkaido Wilds Foundation. Map sales were also solid, and we thank our domestic and overseas stockists for their support!
While donation income increased somewhat, the increase in website-related costs was much more stark. This year’s increase in user numbers and page views was duly reflected in various website cost metrics. Fastly.com, the CDN we use, was particularly pricey, exceeding US$100 a month since October 2024. Google Maps API costs were also surprisingly high – these hit over 20,000JPY for January (Google Maps API costs are incurred through our embedded maps with route pins, like the one here). These usage-based web costs were much higher this year – indeed, we’ve never paid for Google API costs previously.
These increased usage-based costs are somewhat of a concern regarding cashflow. That is, while total income was 637,259yen this year, about 50% of that came from extra work I (Rob) did over the year. This included work on the government backcountry survey, and some Ministry of Environment translation projects. That extra work is fulfilling, but it claws away time that could otherwise be used writing up route guides and making maps. Ideally I’d prefer to spend more of my free time on creating content for HokkaidoWilds.org, so we’ll have to think of ways to help HokkaidoWilds.org users help us to keep the site above water. Perhaps it’s time for merch 😬
Speaking of costs, corporate tax continues to be somewhat of a burden. That is, this year we paid 178,200yen (US$1,200) in corporate tax. This is not paid on donations, just revenue-generating things like map sales and consulting fees (e.g. money I was paid for helping out with the government survey). We don’t have any issue with the percentage-based taxes. However, for corporate tax-paying entities, there are flat fees that need to be paid – Sapporo City charges 50,000yen, and Hokkaido charges 20,000yen. This means that the smaller your profit is, the higher the overall tax margin becomes; our tax margin was over 40% this year (a 178,200yen tax bill against profit of 414,860yen).
All this tax talk is increasing the motivation to perhaps finally make the move to incorporation. There are flat-rate tax breaks for incorporated non-profits, so this is something we’ll be looking into with more urgency this coming year. Becoming incorporated may also increase our likelihood of being accepted into Fastly.com’s Fast-Forward program (free CDN), which would save us thousands of dollars a year.
| OPERATING ACCOUNT | ||
|---|---|---|
| Income | ||
| A) Carried over Apr 1, 2024 | 492,596 | |
| Donations (Kofi) (50%) | 66,843 | |
| Donations (Paypal) (50%) | 20,190 | |
| Donations (other) | 14,509 | |
| Map sales (Wholesale) | 220,000 | |
| Map sales (Amazon) | 34,517 | |
| Commissioned work | 302,523 | |
| Interest | 45 | |
| B) Total income | 648,627 | |
| Expenses | ||
| Web (plugin licenses, hosting, CDN, Google Maps API etc) | 444,971 | |
| Software (Adobe, Freee etc) | 89,074 | |
| Documentation costs (travel, vehicle etc) | 14,590 | |
| Miscellaneous admin | 23,739 | |
| Gear | 8,850 | |
| Gear (sea kayak and bike rack) | 76,573 | |
| C) Total expenses | 648,947 | |
| D) Corporate Tax | 178,200 | |
| YEAR-END NET ASSETS as of 2025/3/31 (A+B)-(C+D) | 411,272 | |
