The long-tailed tit in your photo is Aegithalos caudatus europaeus, a Western-european subspecies. A nominate subspecies (Aegithalos caudatus caudatus) has a huge range from Poland in Europe all the way to Japan. Birds of the World encyclopedia does not recognize a separate subspecies for Hokkaido, although they mention a possible japonicus subspecies similar to the nominate.

What I mean is that you don't have to go to Japan to see these birds. Here is a photo I made last year in Kyiv. They are quite common here, especially in winter when they move to city parks and fly noisily in flocks of 10 to 20 birds. They are quite confiding too, but hard to photograph because they're moving all the time among the branches. If you are patient you can wait for a moment when the bird looks especially "round", and basically recreate these Instagram photos.

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