ice breaking cruise in hokkaido

hi,
anyone knows when the ice breaking cruise in hokkaido starts for 2008. I am visiting in jan and like to know if i can catch it. Where to book online ?

From Abashiri:
http://www.ms-aurora.com/page2.htm
Daily from January 20 to March 31.

From Monbetsu:
http://www.o-tower.co.jp/garinko/
Daily from January 20 to March 31.

Online reservations are not possible in either case.

The hotel I am staying helped me reserved the ice breaking cruise, it costs 3000 yen per person.

Try this

http://www.abashirikoso.com/world/

The Tourist Information Center inside Abashiri train station sells the cruise ticket. You can also purchase a two day discounted bus ticket from this place. The discounted bus ticket can be used to the cruise. The bus leaves from the train station ( bus stop is about fifty meters away )to the cruise at a regular interval.

does anyone know if it's possible to buy the tickets to the abashiri ice breaking cruise in sapporo??

You can make reservations by phone from anywhere in the world. The phone number is mentioned on their official English website:
http://www.ms-aurora.com/e_page2.htm

I got my bookings here http://www.abashiri.biz/stay.html
Here's a sample of my day out. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=1UVBe3EPAJk

It looks like reservations are possible to do online. If you look at: http://www.ms-aurora.com/e_page2.htm

There is a "Reservation" link which takes you to a Japanese only reservation page. I just reserved a cruise through this page by using webpage translators as I do not understand Japanese. Am I correct in my understanding that this page allows you to reserve the cruise?

May i know if the Ice Breaking Cruise still operates during end March period? Or when ususally is the last cruise trip for the Ice Breaking Season? Is Abashiri & Monbetsu the only 2 place that operates the Ice Breaking cruise trip?

Good luck trying to get the time you want if you book online through their website, because I tried to do that last week and all the dates "appeared" as booked.

However, I was able to book the date and time i want through my hotel at Abashiri (even got the Ice Break Ship Room Package).

I heard that all the hotels "blocked" the good times and dates for their guests, so your best bet is to just go through the hotel.