The pinnacle of the tour was the Shiretoko peninsula.
I stayed for four nights, two longer than originally planned.
You cycle 40k along the road on the edge of the peninsula until you reach the little port of Utoro, mountains on your right, the blue sea on your left. It was unspoiled even then.
And that's the populated part of the Shiretoko peninsula.
From Utoro up, it becomes the kingdom of the deer and the bear and the fox. All that remains is a one youth hostel and a hotel. The road only continues about another 20k. After that the only way to travel is to cross the rope-bridge, take your chances with the bears, climb high and walk the one trail down the centre of the ridge.
The sheer untouched remoteness of this peninsula is especially unique in the Japan of Alex Kerr. No pork-barrel concrete, no dammed rivers, no human habitation, no tourist tackiness or amazing, record-breaking, plastic attractions. Just green. And the deers and the bears and the foxes. And silence. A credit to the local grassroots movements who fought and stopped the machine of "progress." And a truly entrancing place.
Unfortunately in some ways, it's just been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Long term, that will help preserve it in its current natural state. Short-term, it attracts a lot of punters and the places to stay put their prices up.
No matter. The majority don't make it past the five lakes or the waterfall. I saw two bears in the wild, at a far enough distance not to feel worried. Others saw more and closer, fishing for salmon at the river mouth not a 100 metres from the Iwaobetsu Youth Hostel. Don't eat those carrots. Good eyesight is not always a benefit.
The best memory on the bike came in Shiretoko, too. I'd sweated the summer beer away climbing in a low gear for 12k from Utoro to the five lakes, endured the rude hordes from the tour buses at the lakes, and it was time to cycle home. For that 12k home, I hardly pedalled at all, and the bike was going just under 50k the whole time. The buses were gone and the roads were virtually empty. There was noone else except a curious northern fox and the weather was perfect. It was one of those euphoric moments among a lot of ordinary times on the bike. After the day's earlier effort, the speed of gravity in your favour and the reward.
There was also a Canadian wearing a Canada t-shirt and carrying around an enormous Kermit the Frog teddy bear on the back of his bike. Canadians aren't strange at all.
A quick selection of a few of my many photos of the place.
Tom, any links to any maps to put some geographical context?
Nerdy Butler
Now, I've been promising myself Shiretoko for too long. The photos are great, in that they justify my already pristine image of the place. If I don't get up there before I leave this country I'll be kicking myself for years. In addition to Shiretoko, Rebun-to on the North West coast of the island is another place I'd love to climb. In practical terms, so near, yet so far.
Posted by: Luke at September 7, 2005 12:13 AM | Permalink to CommentLuke, when you go, make sure to hit the mountains, as I know you will. Bring a tent and do the traverse, including Iozan and Rausu. Because I only had runners, I opted for the day hike (summer glaciers and all that).
Paul, I tried to do a map today on Google Maps, but it's tricky if you want to put the map on your site. Do you know any other software/interface for map creation?
Posted by: Setsunai at September 7, 2005 9:57 PM | Permalink to Commenti went to shiretoko last month, but i did not have nearly the luck you did. we had rain and fog the entire time. i loved it (!) but we did not really see as much as i would have liked.
nice pictures