June - Hokkaido Camper Van Trip

There is also a tall hill at the rear of the property. You can rent a Segway, but we hiked up the old fashioned way. It was incredibly steep, I don't know that I have ever hiked up something that was both smoothly paved and on such a steep gradient. There was a lovely view and a nice breeze at the top though! We couldn't linger because the park was closing soon, but the forest was a lovely place to explore.

For the night, we drove to a roadside stop which in Japanese is called a "michi no eki". They range in size but during the day when everything is open they all have at least one store with local specialties, both souvenirs and snacks, often a restaurant, and always a washroom. Some also have extra amenities like showers, public baths, wifi with charging stations, and local history expositions. Overnight the stores close, but there are always washrooms and free parking available. (And because it is Japan, even overnight the washrooms are clean!) Each michi no eki is unique, but every time we stopped at one overnight there were a couple long haul trucks, and at least a handful of various sized campers.

Day 2 - Akan Internation Crane Center

The roadside station we stopped at overnight also had a Crane Center, so I decided to stop by in the morning. Not the construction crane, but the animal. Japan has a few different types of migratory cranes that fly over throughout the year, but only one that actually roosts in Japan over the winter. That's the red-crowned crane (also known as a Tancho). 

The Tancho population fell to critical levels in the 1900s. One winter, a farmer noticed that a few were nesting on his farm and he decided to try feeding them since he knew they were endangered. This led to a feeding program that still exists today to encourage the growth of the Tancho population, with the Crane Center eventually being built on the grounds. This Crane Center also has an artificial breeding ground that raises a couple chicks every year.

There was also a museum that was pretty well laid out for children to teach them about the cranes and how they are raised. The most interesting part for me was seeing the Tancho costume they have to feed the baby cranes. Without the costume, the chicks wouldn't be able to recognize other cranes as potential mates.

The mating dances that these cranes do in February are very pretty, so I highly recommend you look up a video about that!

Kushiro Marsh

Next stop was the Kushiro Marsh Observatory. There was a small museum here that explained the wildlife that you could see in the Marsh since it was a fairly unique ecosystem. They also had a nice path to walk through the Marshland that was a couple kilometers long that Marlena and I decided to go down.

We were fairly suprised to see how... Normal(?) the path seemed, there was nothing very unique about this supposed "Marshland". If you had blindfolded me and brought me here, I would have just guessed that it was a forest in Ontario. Just a fairly normal wooded area.

The one interesting thing was some historical houses we came across on one of the side paths. Basically, there were a bunch of rolling pits in the ground that looked like smooth holes, and there were some "pit houses" around. The smooth holes were the foundations for old houses.

Lake Mashu and Mount Iwo

After the marsh we headed over to the campground we would be staying at for the night. The main advantage of a campground is that it is quieter and we can plug in our camper van for access to the microwave and A/C. We did a quick check-in and figured out where our spot was for the night, then headed out again to some sightseeing spots nearby.

There's a volcanic area near the campground that has a couple caldera lakes and a sulfur volcano (Mount Iwo). The one lake we were interested in (Lake Mashu) is "one of the clearest lakes in the world". On a nice day, you can see down about 20m. Unfortunately for us, it was a grey day and really just looked blue.

One bright side was that while driving, we came to a pass with an excellent view of Mount Iwo with some parting clouds overhead and snapped a great picture!

Now onto Mount Iwo. We technically arrived after closing, but that just meant they weren't charging for parking and the rest house wasn't open. It also meant that almost nobody was there!

I found this place really cool. There's a bunch of "Fumaroles" (vents releasing volcanic gas) that are spewing out everywhere, with a strong smell of sulfur. It's literally the earth letting off steam. So interesting to see volcanic activity up close like this! Most of the vents were roped off, but there were some areas with water boiling at the surface (basically a mini hot spring) that you could walk up to and look at up close.

The water spewing out right at each source was incredibly hot, and as it flowed along forming small pools they got cooler and cooler until they were a lovely temperature! But you had to be careful not to get caught in a cloud of hot (and smelly) steam if the wind suddenly changed directions on you while next to a vent.

Day 3

For the third day we drove north-east to a peninsula named Shiretoko. Most of the peninsula is a national park, and they are known for their pristine nature, and their many many bears. In the morning, we were going to take a boat ride along the coast to observe animals on the mainland, but unfortunately it was such a foggy day that all the tours were cancelled. Instead, we toured the local tourist center as well as the Shiretoko World Heritage Center, both of which told us plenty about the local flora and fauna.

Oh! And while Japan loves their mascots so there are many to choose from, I think Shiretoko has the cutest one. It is a bear named Toko-san (Mr. Toko) and the visitor center had lovely shirts with him on them so we both had to get one. He also featured on various posters around town.

There were other couples on the tour with us from Taiwan and Singapore, and one of the men had even spent a year in Ottawa on exchange! He and his wife were currently also living in Japan for about a year, while he was doing some studying in international affairs at a Japanese university, so we had a fabulous time chatting about comparing Ottawa to the rest of Canada, and what the best and worst parts of living in Japan were.

While the fog was temperamental and sometimes rolled in to block our view of some of the lakes, it was still a great tour and thankfully it cleared for at least a few moments along the way. Like Algonquin Park, Shiretoko used to be a settled area with people living and farming in what looks like untouched wilderness to us now. Folks have moved away from the end of the peninsula and buildings were removed to create the protected area. While we didn't see any evidence of human settlement on our tour, I asked our guide if you could still see foundations in some areas and he said yes.

My favourite fact from the tour was that while the bears in Shiretoko do occasionally eat meat, the majority of their diet is plant matter. However, members of the same species in other places (like Canada) are the opposite by eating mostly meat and occasionally plants.

After getting gas just minutes before all the gas stations closed for the day (at 6), we stopped at a waterfall, and then we drove north along the coast to another michi no eki for the night.

Day 4

For the morning, we visited the Museum of Northern Peoples. They focused on all the indigenous cultures from the north, including Hokkaido, Russia, Greenland, and Canada. I liked the museum as a whole, and it was interesting to find similarities and differences among the various peoples, and how humans adapt to live in such a range of environments. There was also a lot of old black and white footage to complement the artifacts on display. My only complaint is that it was a little out of date? There didn't seem to be any recent additions, in any of the sections, although perhaps we just happened to be there as they were changing out temporary exhibits which would be more current. A good audio guide though!

For the afternoon, we drove to the town of Kitami to visit their Mint Museum (no photos taken, sorry!). Before the Second World War, the town of Kitami was responsible for 70% of the world's mint production. They grew the mint and then distilled the oils to flavour and scent all sorts of products produced world wide. Unfortunately, between the war shifting farming priorities, and the invention of synthetic mint flavourings, Kitami has since moved on from the mint industry. However, they had the most enthusiastic employees of any museum I have visited, everyone was so excited to tell us all sorts of things about mint, regardless of our competence in Japanese or their abilities in English. While it was a small museum it was a neat place to stop for a short visit. Be sure not to arrive too late though, or you will miss the distilling demonstration!

The next post is here: Sendai & Hakone