Everything is big in Hokkaido. Big streets, big stores, big parking lots. Hokkaido doesn't give you that quaint, traditional, slightly claustrophobic feeling you get in Honshu and throughout the rest of Japan. Big gaijin would like Hokkaido.
Hokkaido is responsible for 10 percent of all the food output in Japan. Before I visited Hokkaido, most of the pictures I had seen of it were the side panels of milk cartons. They always featured happy cows grazing in large grassy pastures. One of the most famous dairy brands in Hokkaido is "Milkland Hokkaido." You've got to love a company whose motto is, "every day, every day, for tomorrow."
Cheese and butter in Japan were first produced in Hokkaido, so cows have a long history here. Dairy farms are everywhere, and cows abound, especially souvenir versions. One farm I saw the other day had a sign outside informing their stock was "Happy Live Holsteins." Indeed, cows must like Hokkaido because they can stroll around in pastures, something Honshu cows cannot do.