It was half past six on a mid July morning when we started our journey. Wakkanai is about 380km from our home. We took the regular road, lies along the Sea of Japan coast all the way to Wakkanai, expecting to reach there before the nightfall. Alternatively, one can take the Sasson Expressway from Otaru and then the Hokkaido Expressway to Fukagawa and then the regular road to Rumoi
The road was about 20m high above the sea level. The beach was rugged with green colored high cliffs covered with vegetation. Right side of the road was mountainous. There hay roles in the grasslands beside the road. We saw a beautiful perfect cone shaped mountain in some distance. We later found out that it was Ogonzan (黄金山). There were boards along the road about a nearby cherry farm. So we decided to go there. The car park was full with people of all the ages came there to pick cherries. The entrance fee was 1000yen for one and that allows you to pick and eat as much as you want. But if you need to take some home, you need to pay for the weight. We spent some time there walking around the garden picking and eating cherries. For more enthusiastic ones who need to reach the top, there were ladders available.
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Just a few kilometers after passing the cherry garden, about 40 kilometers away from Rumoi Haboro Hokkaido Seabird Center is next to the rose garden. This is a natural history museum focuses on seabirds in Teuri sland . We kept it for a later time.
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The landscape was mostly mountains with seaside cliffs until Haboro. But after passing Haboro landscape changed to green plains and grasslands extending as far as the eye could see. Most of the grass fields were dotted with hay rolls. In some places hay rolls were covered with white covers. There were lots of wind farms harvesting wind power to generate electricity. The road was mostly arrow straight. Speed cameras were fixed in some places to catch over speeding drivers. From few kilometers before the speed cameras were yellow notices fixed over the road saying speed cameras in operation.
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| Mt. |
Our plan was to take the root 106 from Teshio. Route 106 runs along the coastline all the way to Wakkanai while route 232 moves inland and joins route 40 which is starting from Asahaikawa. But somehow we missed the turn in Teshio and realized the mistake only after travelling about 30 kilometers. So to correct our mistake we turn left from Toyotomi to route 444 which travels west and connects to route 106.
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| Hay Rolls |
Extending all the way to the horizon in every direction was green grasslands of Sarobetsu wetland. After a few minutes of travelling we reached Sarobetsu Wetland Center. We saw the spectacular sight of Mount Rishir rising tall in the distance. From here we couldn't say that the mount is on an island several kilometers away from the shore. It seemed very close. There were small clouds touching the peak. Near the Wetland Center there is an observation tower, which provides a 360 degree view of the wetland. Without scaling the tower we continued our journey westwards aiming at Mout Rishiri.
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We got to route 106 and headed towards Wakkanai. Ruban Rishiri
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Cape Soya, the northernmost point of Japan is about 40 kilometers from here. The place was crowded with tourists. There was a triangular shaped monument with a plaque stating "Northernmost Point of Japan" Everyone was waiting for a chance to take a photo with it. On our way back to Wakkanai city, we took the road through the Soyamisaki Farm. The landscape was rugged with small hills covered with green grass. Hundreds of black cows were grazing. There was an electric fence to prevent them from entering the road. Terraces cut through the green hill made an awesome spectacle. We saw a shop in a building that made to look like an ancient windmill. The shop was closed, but there was a little fox with posing professionally for photos with no fear of human. Several wind turbines could be seen from the distance. We reached our hotel by the nightfall. After check in we walked to a nearby restaurant and had a delicious yakisoba
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Sice we couldn't reserve tickets in advance, we decided to go to ferry terminal as early as possible to get tickets for 7.15 Ferry. We had our breakfast from the hotel and reached terminal by 6.30am. Economy class ticket was 2030 yen. When we were planning this trip a month earlier we had an idea to take our car to the island. But the ferry was full when we tried to book online. Then we decided to rent a car. But somehow we forgot to reserve the car early enough. When we called the several rental companies on the previous day there were no any cars available. 7.15 the ferry was scheduled to travel to the Reuben island through Rishiri Island.
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| Sea Gulls |
Several hundred passengers boarded the ferry. There was a seating area for economy class passengers. Even though the top was covered by the upper deck, it was open from left, right and front. It was cold with the wind. As we left the harbor, sea gulls started chasing the ferry. After a few minutes we realized that they were after the junk snack foods thrown by the passengers. Even though there were notices advising not to feed gulls it was appeared some passengers didn't noticed that. Feeding any wild animal do no good for them. A few years back in Udawalawe National Park in Sri Lanka, several wild elephants used to come near the electric fence separating them from the main road to get fed by the tourists travelling the road. For some time this was their main food source until an unfortunate incident put a stop to this. A small boy had tried to feed an elephant waiting inside the fence. Some action by the boy has angered the elephant and it pulled the child through the fence using its long trunk and killed the him. After this incident, authorities built a second electric fence a few feet inside the outside fence to put an end to this feeding habit.
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| Cape Peshi |
Top half of Mt. Rishiri
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We decided to walk to Hime Pond, which is about 5km from the ferry terminal. The pond is accessible by a car. Since we didn't have a car we walked all the way. There were numerous varieties of beautiful wild flowers along the sides of the road. We saw some old wooden boats. Houses were not modern and had a look of a traditional fishing village. When we reached the Hime Pond there were several tour busses full of tourists. There was a path to walk around the man made pond. We were not lucky enough to witness the reflection of the peak through the pond because the it was covered with clouds. There were some water birds in the pond.
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From Hime Pond one can hike up to Mt. Rishiri
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| Wild Flowers |
We just met only one group of cyclists on the whole way to the main road. They turned back because the road was steep in that section. There was a foot Onsen just after reaching the main road. We rested our tired legs in the warm water for a few minutes and continue our walk back to the ferry terminal down the main road. Initially we had a plan to try and climb the Cape Peshi. But it was about 2pm when we reach there. So we decided to abandon the climb and take the 2.35 ferry back to Wakkanai.
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| Green Plains |
We were back in Wakkanai by 4.30pm. While wandering in the city to find a good place to have a dinner we by chance entered the Wakkanai beer festival. There were lots of food stalls to choose from. We had a good Russian soup and barbecue chicken and enjoyed the musical show for several hours before got back to the hotel. We didn't have a specific plan for the next morning other than driving the long way back to Niseko. After having breakfast, just before we started our journey back home we changed our plan and decided to visit Furano flower fields. So we headed towards Asahikawa.
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The landscape was flat plains most of the way to Asahikawa. Some parts of the route were toll free expressways. When closing to Asahikawa landscape became mountainous. The largest national park in Hokkaido, Daisetsuzan National Park is close to Asahikawa, which also home to Mt. Asahi, the highest peak in Hokkaido. Asahiyama Zoo is also a popular attraction in this area. We reached Biei before midday and stopped by the first large flower field we found. A large area was covered with lavender, and yellow, orange and white colored flower strips. Entrance to the farm was free. There were paths around the flower fields where you can drive a buggy around. Buggies were available to rent. We didn't try the buggy, but had a walk around and took some photographs before leaving for Furano.
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| Furano Lavender Fields |
There were numerous flower fields of various sizes all the way to Furano. Most were lavender fields covering huge areas like a purple carpet. When we were reaching Furano there was a huge traffic block near the entrances of the flower fields. There were lines hundreds of meters long waiting to enter the parking area. We entered a lavender field which was a ski area converted to a farm. A chair lift was operating to carry people to the top. Whole slope was purple covered with lavender all the way to top. We took the steps up the slope and reached the top. Scenery with the distant mountains in the backdrop was awesome. After enjoying the lavender fields, we continued our journey back home.
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| Furano Lavender Fields |
Useful Links
Places to stay
Ferry Reservation
Car Rental in Rishiri Island
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