The Shiretoko, Abashiri and Kitami areas are rich in nature. In Shiretoko, drift ice can be seen from winter to early spring. In addition to the natural beauty of the area, there are many other attractions such as the Abashiri Prison and the Kitami Hakka Memorial Museum.
Recommended sightseeing information for Shiretoko, Abashiri, and Kitami. Shiretoko Peninsula is located in the eastern part of Hokkaido, facing the Sea of Okhotsk, and is a rich natural tourist destination where drift ice from the Arctic Circle arrives in winter. Shiretoko, which means "the end of the earth" in the Ainu language, is also called Japan's last unexplored region, and the sheer cliffs that it is named for are truly breathtaking. The Shiretoko Volcanic Formation runs through the center of the peninsula, and mountains over 1,000 meters high rise above the peninsula. The virgin forests that stretch inland are home to wild foxes, brown bears, Ezo squirrels, Ezo sika deer, and other animals.
Shiretoko, with its pristine nature, was designated as Japan's 22nd national park in 1964, and was later inscribed as a World Heritage site at the 29th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in 2005. Many tourists visit Shiretoko to see the unexplored nature. If this is your first visit to Shiretoko, we recommend that you take the Shiretoko Sightseeing Boat, which operates from Utoro between May and October.
Utoro, the sightseeing base, is also home to Utoro Hot Springs, but it is also famous for Iwaobetsu Hot Springs and Kamuiwakka Hot Spring Falls, where the entire waterfall is a hot spring. At the Shiretoko Five Lakes, one of the most popular sightseeing spots in Shiretoko, visitors are encouraged to take a nature guided tour and enjoy the great outdoors.
Located on the west side of the Shiretoko Peninsula is Abashiri City, famous for Abashiri Prison. Because of its location facing the Sea of Okhotsk, Abashiri City is known for its relatively mild climate for the East Hokkaido region, due in part to its oceanic climate. The city has an abundance of tourist attractions, with the Okhotsk Drift Ice Museum and the icebreaker Garinko the centerpiece of the city's sightseeing. The Okhotsk Drift Ice Museum has a drift ice experience room where visitors can experience minus 18 degrees Celsius, allowing them to see and touch drift ice even in summer. Visitors can also get up close and personal with clione, the "angels of drift ice," and fushen fish. The Museum Abashiri Prison, which is an old Abashiri Prison building turned into a tourist facility, is another classic sightseeing spot in Abashiri City. Okhotsk Chipmunk Park is suited for tourists who like animals. The small zoo is home to Ezo chipmunks, and some of the squirrels are so accustomed to people that they even climb into tourists' shirts.
Kitami City is the third largest core city in eastern Hokkaido. Because of the abundance of nature in the city, many foxes live in the surrounding area, often appearing in residential areas. The city is also home to the "North Fox Farm," which is a tourist attraction. Before World War II, approximately 70% of the world's marijuana was produced in Kitami, making the city famous for its marijuana. The city has the Kitami Hakka Memorial Museum, which tells the story of the history of Hakka, and is a sightseeing spot. Near the Kitami Hakka Memorial Museum is the Usukashi Distillery, and many tourists visit the ruins of a private residence called the Hakka Palace. There is also the vast Kitami Flower Paradise, which boasts an area equivalent to six times the size of the Tokyo Dome, with 30,000 seasonal flowers of 85 varieties blooming in all four seasons.
This is the only prison museum in Japan that exhibits the main buildings of the former Abashiri Prison, including the relocated cells, the prison chapel, and the government office building, and also exhibits the historical objects and equipment that have been used since the Meiji Era. In particular, this is the only one of its kind in Japan that has the five radiating wooden one-story cells. In ...»
The icebreaker has a large drill to break up ice floes, and its hull is tough enough to withstand the extreme cold of the sea.The ice floes float up from the side of the ship, giving the cruise a powerful experience. The two-deck Garinko II and three-deck Garinko III IMERU are in operation, with air-conditioned cabins and observation decks. In summer, visitors can enjoy fishing on a fishing crui...»
The 18-km-long straight road is called "the road that leads to heaven" because the straight road stretches far into the distance and the end of the road seems to continue to the sky. With the wooden observatory "Nameless Observatory" near the top of the hill as a landmark, the view beyond the starting point of the "Road that Leads to Heaven" is as if you are ascending into the sky. ...»
The permanent exhibition of actual drift ice in the Sea of Okhotsk is on display in the extreme cold experience room (-15 degrees Celsius even in summer), where visitors can learn how drift ice is formed. The Drift Ice Fantasy Theater offers dynamic sound and powerful front, left, right, top, and bottom screens to give visitors a realistic view of drift ice. The Okhotsk creatures, such as the cl...»
The drift ice breaker is a popular activity for drift ice sightseeing, as it takes you through the middle of the drift ice sea, where thick drift ice is breaking up rapidly. The drift ice field spreads out before your eyes, and the entire ship vibrates as the bottom of the ship hits the ice blocks, making for a very powerful experience. You may also see seals taking a leisurely nap on the ice fl...»
The Shiretoko Five Lakes are five large and small volcanic dammed lakes scattered at the foot of the Shiretoko Mountain Range, which forms the Shiretoko Peninsula. Surrounded by virgin forest, they are mysterious. There are a boardwalk and an elevated wooden trail. Closed during winter...»
From mid-May to early June, when the lawn cherry trees are in full bloom, a vast slope of 100,000 square meters is beautifully decorated as if it were covered with a velvet carpet. This is a popular spot that attracts many tourists every spring.The Higashi Motto Shiba-zakura Festival is held during the blooming season....»
Through the crystal clear water, the bottom of the pond, which is about 5 meters deep, appears blue, and fallen trees are submerged like fossils in the blue water without rotting. The view of the vermilion-spotted oshorocoma swimming through the gaps between the fallen trees is a mystical sight. The pond has a circumference of 220 meters, is crystal clear to the bottom, and with water temperatur...»
About 300 kinds of herbs and flowers are planted on the 4-hectare site, and visitors can enjoy a variety of plants from May to October. This land produces the largest amount of mint in Japan, and the Mint Garden, where visitors can enjoy the fragrance of about 80 varieties of mint from June to September, is highly recommended. At the Fragrance House, visitors can enjoy herb tea and light meals m...»
Okhotsk Kitami Shio Yakisoba fried noodles were developed to attract more visitors to Kitami City, which faces the Sea of Okhotsk, using the region’s specialty ingredients: callops and onions. The dish is simply seasoned with salt to best bring out the taste of these ingredients. In February 2007, a joint council to further promote the yakisoba was established, defining the basic rules for the par...»
Shibetsu-cho, a coastal town facing the Sea of Okhotsk, is home to one of the largest salmon fisheries in Japan. Shibetsu Sake Sandai Zuke Don is its specialty rice bowl dish, in which fresh, locally-grown salmon and its roe marinated in sweet soy sauce and bonito broth, and dried salmon flakes are served on top of rice. The scallops also caught in Shibetsu adds smooths and sweet flavour to the di...»