A short trip to Japan - Hokkaido

[rbjhan]

I've had horse sashimi before in Japan (twice!) but never whale...

 

[kookaburra75]

Is there a difference.

As a former mine surveyor I can spot the difference, but to the untrained eye they are almost indistinguishable.

Thanks for the trip report - the places look amazing. MrsK and I have never been to Japan and it is on our list, so your trip report, and others are a gold mine of information.

 

[RooFlyer]

A grey, drizzly morning. Breakfast at the Dormy was Japanese only, so I had that; been putting it off for now. Not bad, except the damn raw fish kept repeating most of the morning.

On the drive out of Abashiri I spotted this - actually, saw it before; normally I'd be over to have a look at a rock like that like a rat up a drainpipe, but as it was cold and would been a 10 min or so walk (no raincoat), I gave it a miss. Basically knew what it was anyway.



Destination today is Rausu, on the other side of the Shiretoko Peninsula. Going via the Shiretoko pass, the spine of the peninsula which will hopefully give some nice views.






Up the coast out of Abasheri is open marshland and farms - lovely rich soil like everywhere I've seen here. As I swung up the peninsula the farmland gave way to forest as the road hugged the coast.



Oshinkoshin falls seemed a popular stop for the tour busses and provided a bit of a walk.









Anyone know what these rhubarb-like leaved plants are? Seem like a weed here - everywhere along roads.

 

[RooFlyer]

A little further up the road was Utoro, which seems a fishing town and an onsen resort place. I arrived at lunch time and stopped at a sort of visitors centre. Inside, a shop with lots of local products, some take-aways, small restaurant etc.







Wandered over to 'Cowberry' (it gives a nice pink juice, I learned later) and ordered from the machine







A salmon burger for me, which was really nice. Also a Shiretoko donut (not pictured!)



Looks like a good base to explore the area

 

[RooFlyer]

There was another 'big rock' here, so I checked it out





On the other side of the tunnel was a parking lot in the breakwater harbour. But 100 yen to go there (its a parking lot for boat tours). OK.







The above place is

北海道 世界遺産｜北こぶし 知床 ホテル＆リゾート【公式】 | 北海道・世界遺産 知床半島の観光拠点に最適なウトロ温泉のリゾートホテル 北こぶし 知床 ホテル＆リゾート。オホーツク海に面し眺めの良い温泉風呂、美味しいお料理、露天風呂付き客室で最良の時間をお過ごしください。

北海道・世界遺産 知床半島の観光拠点に最適なウトロ温泉のリゾートホテル 北こぶし 知床 ホテル＆リゾート。オホーツク海に面し眺めの良い温泉風呂、美味しいお料理、露天風呂付き客室で最良の時間をお過ごしください。

www.shiretoko.co.jp

This is up behind the town and looks nice too

北海道 知床 | キキシレトコナチュラルリゾート【公式】

【公式】KIKI知床ナチュラルリゾートの公式HPです。公式HP経由のご予約が一番お得。オホーツク海を望む高台に佇む知床の宿・風なみ季がリニューアルしKIKI知床 ナチュラルリゾートに生まれ変わりました。心の奥に焼きついた世界自然遺産知床と感動の余韻を楽しみながら、どうぞごゆっくりとおくつろぎください。

www.kikishiretoko.co.jp

If I'd known about these, I probably would have stayed the night here (but I didn't check the prices!!)

It had started to drizzle by this time, which was a shame as I was about to climb up to the Shiretoko pass.

Up in the clouds at the top; still a lot of patches of snow about. The pass gets closed in winter. Funnily enough there were no snow-depth markers along the road, nor edge markers, which are virtually everywhere else!!

 

[RooFlyer]

I arrived at Rausu early, but I was able to check into my hotel. Reason for staying is a whale-watching cruise the next day; 9:00. If I stayed at Utoro, it would have been an early start, but maybe 75 mins over the pass to Rausu.

The Shiretoro Serai looked the best choice in town, but its more basic than an Ibis (eg shared fridge in the common area); pretty new and family run I suspect. I booked it through booking.com





Bathroom smaller than a cruise liner!! The bath is maybe 2/3 size.



It was still drizzly so not much to do except go for a drive. There is one up the Peninsula coast, so I tootled up there. It was basically a chain of fishing villages/houses/sheds and a few breakwater ports for the fishing boats, all hugging the coast. The NE end point is the end of the road.








Spotted these two - sea eagles I'm thinking. There are fishing nets strung out all along the coast.

 

[rbjhan]

I see you have made acquaintances with the Japanese unit bath

 

[RooFlyer]

Got to the end of the road where there is another group of houses/sheds around a breakwater port. 5G reception the entire way.





Driving back, I stopped to get a pic and noticed this - a shoreline pool which held warm spring water piped down from up the hill. No takers today.





Just out of Rausu is the 'Rausu Observatory Tower'. I didn't stop on my way in as it was raining but thought I may as well have a look. Good view of the town





There is some type of observatory there as well as a visitor's centre (closed by the time I got there).





This was the drive into Rausu



Did i mention that the damn car marks me every time I stop?

 

[RooFlyer]

I had pre-booked dinner as part of my stay. I sort of regretted doing that, as I fancied I could get a good feed of king crab in town - never mind.

I was allocated 6pm and the dining room was 2/3 full (maybe 12 people). They had me set facing the wall and were a bit flustered when I sat down facing away from the wall with a view out the window. In this case - the customer will be right and I stood (or sat) my ground.

Fixed menu (although others seemed to have something different - perhaps they pre-ordered??)



Tapas/appetisers




Main of cod; I don't like tomato with fish, personally, but it was OK



Linguini with crab - delicious; wish it was the main



Dessert



And so I retire to bed. Dawn will be at 3:30am - but no matter, this light outside my window will make sure the curtains are well drawn.



I'm discovering that the walls are pretty thin here - guy(s) next door carrying on some conversation, possibly a bit Brahms. In Japan, do we bang on the walls? Its getting to that point.

 

[RooFlyer]

The night sleep wasn’t great. The room was classified as western but the bed was very low, quite hard and the pillows even harder but I was expecting that at some stage of this trip.

View from room. That's Kunishir island, part of the chain that goes all the way up to the Kempchatka Peninsula of Russia. Will be cruising in the sea on the way watching this morning.





It’s a lovely fine calm morning and with Dawn at 3:30 I got up at 6 to drive up to the Shiretoko pass to see if I can get some views with finer weather. Unfortunately the cloud line was still at Summit level so I didn’t get the views I was hopeful but there was some.





I then drove up to the Observatory platform that yesterday afternoon and the views were much better.

Mt Rausu





The town again



Over the strait to the island




I’m on the nature cruise this morning and that’s not necessarily what some may think it’s about. Most of the people in the hotel last night are here.

As I’m HLO this trip I didn’t have room for my good camera so it’s just the mobile phone today. Looking around me however, I’m feeling rather inadequate.

 

[RooFlyer]

Four boats heading out. My lot had 2 boats, maybe 30 pax mine.

This the twin of our boat



The lady in the front ( this is the upper deck) was the spotter - had binoculars and would point with her hand to a sighting and say (in Japanese) "xx_x at X o'clock".



It didn’t take long for the orcas to appear. They seem to cruise in one or twos and surfacing and diving about 6-8 times and then they disappear. The boat would approach them, but not get too close.

These are just with an iPhone













we are not very far from the town and the coast.

 

[drron]

Fantastic @RooFlyer. Seeing Orcas in the wild is my next bucket list after a clear Mt. Fuji. However we are late in the season and I am less than 50% confident I will tick this one off my list.

 

[RooFlyer]

 

[Pushka]

Fantastic @RooFlyer. Seeing Orcas in the wild is my next bucket list after a clear Mt. Fuji. However we are late in the season and I am less than 50% confident I will tick this one off my list.

Alaska. Seward. We saw so many wild ones.

Viking Invades Alaska!

Great photos. Looked like an awesome time. Did you mention earlier that you got TSA pre check ? Yes. Not for every flight though. We are doing Anchorage - Honolulu in a couple of days. They don’t recognize QFF so will see what happens.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

And I see you posted the same comments. Five years ago, almost to the day.

 

[drron]

Alaska. Seward. We saw so many wild ones.

Viking Invades Alaska!

Great photos. Looked like an awesome time. Did you mention earlier that you got TSA pre check ? Yes. Not for every flight though. We are doing Anchorage - Honolulu in a couple of days. They don’t recognize QFF so will see what happens.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

And I see you posted the same comments. Five years ago, almost to the day.

So my new TR is Chasing the perfect Orca shot.

 

[jukebox333]

Fantastic @RooFlyer. Seeing Orcas in the wild is my next bucket list after a clear Mt. Fuji. However we are late in the season and I am less than 50% confident I will tick this one off my list.

Come over to Bremer Bay here in WA, @drron

Orca season is Nov - Feb.

These guys run a brilliant day out:

Bremer Bay | Naturaliste Charters

Whale watching tour Bremer Canyon, internationally recognised for it's pristine state and high biological diversity. Click to know more on Bremer Canyon!

naturalistecharters.com.au

 

[JohnM]

Come over to Bremer Bay here in WA, @drron

Orca season is Nov - Feb.

These guys run a brilliant day out:

Bremer Bay | Naturaliste Charters

Whale watching tour Bremer Canyon, internationally recognised for it's pristine state and high biological diversity. Click to know more on Bremer Canyon!

naturalistecharters.com.au

They do - but you have to be awfully lucky with the weather. The wind on the S coast is fierce.

 

[RooFlyer]

We also saw just one porpoise but happened upon this shark about to devour the little fish in front.



After the cruise, I was off to Kangetsun hotel & onsen. There was no great science behind choosing to stay here. I'm on my way to a place in the SE and needed a place about half way.




Some lovely vegetation along the way





A stop to view Mt Oakan, part of the Akan mountians



Then a stop at Akan, mainly to view the 'bokke' ("mud volcano"). Pretty excited to see these - hoping they would be like the mud volcanos I saw in Azerbaijan



Unfortunately what I found was some o the saddest boiling mud pools ever. Quite dried out, just a few plops.



They are right next to Lake Akan





Lake Akan is also famous for its algal balls; they even provide a viewing platform, but out of order.




So overall, a good walk (with 200 yen parking).

 

[VPS]

So my new TR is Chasing the perfect Orca shot.

We saw quite a few in Antarctica

 

[drron]

Doesn't matter where evyone else has seen them. I have been in lots of places where they are mean't to be common and on 3 whale cruises between Seattle and north of Victoria BC, and Antarctica.