Shiretoko Peninsula - May 2018

Photo album

Saturday 19th May

We had a nice straight drive through farmland to Shibetsu, with the Shiretoko mountains looming ever larger. I'd been intrigued by the shape of the Notsuke Peninsula and we decided to visit (although the Shibetsu Salmon Museum sounded kind of appealing).

The peninsula is a low marshy area formed by drifting sand bars and despite being a bit cold and desolate, it was a fascinating place to walk around. There were great views of the Shiretoko mountains as well as Russian-occupied Kunashir Island. There were a handful of men in boats doing some sort of fishing or scavenging, and an opportunistic fox. We really enjoyed the visit and recommend having a look, if the weather isn't too bleak!

We proceeded on to Rausu, the main town on the south east coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula. We started at the very well-appointed main visitor centre where the staff were delighted to have some visitors - like most tourist facilities, it was very quiet! Before returning back down the couple of kilometres to town for lunch with views of Kunashir Island. There was an information booth that had a useful tourist map of the town and we decided to climb to the lookout. This involved quite steep roads and we had definitely warmed up during the climb, but worth it for the fantastic views. I had a quick look in the visitor centre underneath the lookout, which looked very well set up, but the only other person there was a somewhat disinterested attendant. The path continued on, extending past what was shown on the tourist map or Google Maps, until we found an information board showing all the paths. The track was a little treacherous with deep mud in places, and lots of deer prints. Mariko saw something moving on the facing hill - possibly a bear! - no... most likely a deer.

We drove a couple of kilometres further up the coast to the Whale Viewing Hill and lighthouse - nice views, but no whales. We headed inland - there are some more more walking tracks amongst the hills but we left these for another time - and there were lots of warnings about possible bear encounters. We stopped to take some photos at the Shiretoko Pass Lookout, but after a few minutes we were ushered (along with a few other carloads) onwards by the road authority, as the pass was closing for the night. Lucky we decided to go when we did! We hadn't had any warning about the pass being closed, and we would have had to make a 100km detour if we'd missed curfew.

We settled in to our accommodation at the Iruka (Dolphin) Hotel, a really nice hostel-like place, which claims on its website to have an 'OK View' - definitely a massive understatement. We walked back into town for a bite (so quiet - despite being a Saturday night), before returning to settle in to watch the royal wedding. but we couldn't find it on TV! Mariko discovered that YouTube was showing it, so we watched it on her phone, while I enjoyed a banana desert pizza from the hotel restaurant. It'd been a big day and we were looking forward to a good rest, but in the middle of the night I became very itchy and couldn't get back to sleep - perhaps I'm allergic to something I'd eaten - maybe lunch? Or bedbugs? Either way, I was feeling quite tender the next morning - hard to stop scratching, and lots of welts and rashes over my body.

Sunday

We were excited for one of the main attractions of our trip - a tour of the Shiretoko 5 Lakes. I was feeling slightly worse-for-wear due to the allergy, but keen to soldier on! We arrived at the Field House and meet our guide, Yuuji. We were in a small group with Japanese and Israeli couples. After a bear encounter briefing (presumably we all passed the fitness assessment!), Yuuji took us on the nature tour. It was great to see some wildlife (though no bears), and have the various aspects of the forest explained to us. The spectacular mountain backdrop definitely dominated the views though! The weather was drizzly in parts, but this just added to the atmosphere. The tour was a highlight of our trip but I was quite relieved to reach the end of it as there were no toilets along the route and despite being well prepared for that situation, my metabolism was doing its best to rid my body of any nasties.

It would've been nice to see the hot waterfall but the road was closed. We headed back into Utoro to find that there was a food festival on, with a local band providing some great music. Then, on to the sightseeing cruise, on the Aurora - we were worried that it might be very cold and blustery with rough seas, but it turned out fine, and we were able to enjoy the views of the coastline from the top deck - dramatic cliffs, waterfalls, and we even saw a bear!

We drove back to our accommodation and then walked back to town to watch the sunset from Oronko Rock. We had a nervous moment when we waited for ages at the pedestrian crossing for it to turn green, only to realise we were heading in the wrong direction. As no traffic had come for a few minutes we instinctively changed tack to our desired path, which was against the red light - and just at that moment, a police car flashed on its red and blue lights and pulled out almost next to us. Thankfully it turned off towards the hills. We hadn't found any good dining options in town so we went for the Iruka pizzas, and this turned out great. I tried ordering in Japanese but Mariko had to rescue me (yet again!) as my choice wasn't available, and our waitress was European and fluent in English anyway. Over dinner used the Hokkaido tourism playing cards and made an exciting discovery which resulted in a change of plans for the next day.

Monday

I was still very itchy so up and about a bit early. I'd hoped to walk around the headland adjacent to the hotel, but the tide was in, so I just walked through the cutting to see the next beach along the coast. I then filled up the car with fuel, enjoying the full driveway service which included a petite senior Japanese lady standing on a step stool to wash the windscreens.

Packed and on the road, we stopped at the Oshinkoshin Waterfall for our final point of interest of the Shiretoko Peninsula. All up, a terrific place to visit! And apart from having virtually zero nightlife, it'd be good to spend a bit longer here to explore some of the mountain tracks, as long as the bears were friendly.