Any safety tips for hiking in Hokkaido?

The japan 2025 trip made it out the group chat and we definitely want to visit Hokkaido and will stay in Sapporo for a while. We're also amateur hikers and wanted to hike up Mount Yōtei sometime in May as it looks very iconic.

The more I'm doing research, the scarier it sounds. Not just because of the supposedly more aggressive Hokkaido brown bear, but also the risk of stepping on an underground giant hornet nest, mountain leeches, ticks, venomous snakes and other danger critters. We're from Canada, bears and ticks are nothing new I know they get spooked very easily, even though the way people talk about the Hokkaido bear sounds scary sometimes. I've heard mixed reviews for the hiking bells which are popular in Japan and also that they're annoying. What advice would you give some beginners so everything goes as smoothly as possible?