Shiretoko National Park



Shiretoko National Park (知床国立公園 Shiretoko-kokuritsukōen) covers the entirety of the Shiretoko Peninsula (知床半島 Shiretoko-hantō), a remote northeastern corner of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. In 2005, the park was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Understand
Shiretoko is one of the most remote areas of all Japan. The national park has no sizable settlements, and the northern portion of the peninsula does not even have any roads. Peak visiting season is during the short summer season; the park is open all year round, but the conditions in winter can be very harsh.



Information Site
Ministry of Environment has an official bilingual webpage for the park.

Get in
Public transport to Shiretoko is extremely limited. The nearest train station is at Shari, from where you can catch infrequent buses (3 per day in peak season) through Utoro to the western coast of the peninsula. On the eastern side is the small town of Rausu, reachable by bus from Kushiro (3.5 hours) and (in summer only) two daily buses from Utoro as well.

Get around
Getting around for all practical purposes requires your own set of wheels, as buses services are limited and infrequent, especially outside the peak summer season. The northern side of the peninsula is off-limits to cars of any sort. There are no roads on the southern side of the peninsula past Rausu.

Do
There are a number of popular hikes, but most require spending a night or two on the trail. The volcanically active Mt. Iō (1563m) is generally off limits due to the sulphuric fumes it spews out (it last erupted in 1936), but Mt. Shiretoko (1245m) at the northern tip is a possibility. Kamuiwakka Falls trail head closed, but the trails are open.







Buy

 * The gift shop at the Five Lakes is the usual place for stocking up on bear bells and souvenir T-shirts for the folks back home.

Eat
There are few places to eat in Shiretoko. Sometimes there are food stalls at Shiretoko Pass.

Sleep
Upscale lodging can be found in nearby Rausu and Utoro in Shari.



Stay safe
Shiretoko claims Japan's largest bear population, a fact stressed to no end in local tourist literature. In practice, the Hokkaido brown bear (ezo-higuma) is no match for the North American grizzly, and you are exceedingly unlikely to be attacked if you observe a modicum of common sense. That said, most hikers wear tinkling bells known as kumasuzu to alert bears (which shy away from human contact), and you should not leave any food in or near your tent if camping.

On the trail from the summit of Rausudake to Rausu, on the first major flat spot below the summit, there is a stream from which you may be tempted to drink. The water is heavily laden with sulfur and will make you very sick if you drink it. There is a spring with drinkable water a short distance off the trail. Follow the arrow on the boulder with the Kanji character for "water" 水.