Eastern Hokkaido Roadtrip - Akanko, Kussharoko, Abashiri, Shiretoko

We took a camping/onsening/feasting roadtrip through eastern Hokkaido- known to have absolutely nothing to offer but breathtakingly beautiful scenery.

We took along with us our friend Michael Tripp who also is a former Hokkaidoite. Our final destination was Shiretoko but we planned on stopping in at many other places along the way.

Furano

We left bright and early on Friday morning. Our first stop was Furano. Hokkaido people live for Furano in the summer. It’s something that you hear over and over for a few weeks each summer: “Have you gone to Furano yet? The flowers are blooming.” Furano is famous for its endless lavender fields and it’s lavender related products, such as Lavender ice-cream.

Akan

we went from Furano to Akanko (阿寒湖). It’s one of the many Ainu heritage sites with lots of Ainu influence. The Ainu are the indigenous people that were in Hokkaido before the Japanese invaded. We camped at the Lake Akan lakeside campground (阿寒湖畔キャンプ場. However, it really isn’t close to the lakeside… The actual lakeside is crowded with hotels and resorts.
We had a good night of Jingisukan (ジンギスカン) and dodging attacks from giant moths and foxes.

Our daily routine for the trip consisted of: camp->eat->onsen->photograph. After waking up and packing up our campsite, we headed into the town of Akanko to see some Ainu arts & crafts. Marimo is very popular here. It’s a green algae ball that grows in the lake. Inspired by marimo is the Marimo-kori which is a green doll with a huge green marimo boner. (no joke) We enjoyed the BEST onsen all 3 of us had ever had at Tsuruga.

Lake Kussharo & Lake Mashu

We made our way to Lake Kussharo (屈斜路湖 ) and Lake Mashu (摩周湖). It was a very foggy drive. By the time we got to Lake Mashu, we saw no lake. Lake Mashu is famous for being foggy. There’s an old myth that if a couple is able to see the lake on a sunny day, they will not get married. That explains how foggy and how rare it would be to see the actual lake. We saw nothing.

We did our camping for the second night at a random auto campground. Our initial plan to camp by the water did not work out as it was a weekend and the lakeside campground was packed.

We navigated around the lake on a bumpy old logging road and took us 2 hours to get out. It was an adventure with lots of deers jumping around.

We did our onsen dip in Kawayu (川湯) the next day. This whole area smells like Sulphur. The onsen was a very sulphury one. Our silver rings turned golden under the water. We also visited the Iozan mountain (硫黄山). The direct translation of the mountain is Sulphur mountain. There were yellow patches all over it with bubbling water and steam. We bought an egg that was cooked with the sulphur steam. It tasted like sulphury goodness.

Abashiri

Our next stop was Abashiri (網走). To this day, the name Abashiri to the Japanese is the equivalent of “Alkatraz” to North Americans. There’s a big prison in Abashiri and it sure didn’t look pleasant when we visited the Abashiri Prison Museum. Being right in the blast-zone for the siberian winds coming south from Russia, the winter in Abashiri Prison most be almost unimaginable.

We camped at a free campground at Lake Abashiri. (呼人浦キャンプ場) The breeze from the lake was a bit cold that night but it kept the campfire smoke consistent.

We went to another Tsuruga onsen - Hokutennnoka (北天の丘) the next day after our tour of the Abashiri prison. We also tried Milk beer here…. ewwww.

Shiretoko

We got around 4 hours of sunshine when we were in Shiretoko. The sun shone on the ocean and it was magnificent. We visited the famous Shiretoko 5 lakes but unfortunately we were only allowed to go on the observation tower to (barely) see one of the lakes because apparantly there were brown bears in the woods that day. Shiretoko is famous for massive brown bears. We saw one when we were driving from Shiretoko to Rausu. A little cub was just hanging out in the ditch eating leaves. We contemplated getting out of the car to take some photos… but we didn’t. (phew, dodged a bullet there…) We took a little windy mountain road from Utoro to Rausu, where we had the most amazing fresh seafood in a little shack by the ocean.

The second day we woke up to a beautiful view of the ocean, onsened on the cliff overlooking the ocean and drove home.

Really, it was a fantastic trip.