The Japanese kanji for bear (kuma) is a useful one to know if you are out hiking in the mountains at this time of year. The sign reads: kuma shutsubotsu chui (lit. "Beware of haunting bears" or a better translation may be "There are bears about.")
Bear attacks are rare in Japan, but they do occur. In September last year, a black bear injured nine people at a highway rest stop in Nyukawa, a small village in northern Gifu Prefecture and caused havoc as it broke into a souvenir shop before it was shot dead by a registered hunter.
The Sankebetsu brown bear incident in Hokkaido in 1915 is Japan's worst bear attack in which a huge brown bear killed seven people over a period of time.
The following site www.davidbjack.com has information on Japanese brown bear attacks in Hokkaido, some of them fatal, and the author's close encounter with our furry friend on one of its "hauntings".
The small village of Rausu on the south eastern side of the Shiretoko Peninsula has a population of just over 6,000 people and is much quieter than Utoro on the opposite side of the peninsula. Rausu's Konbumachi is famous for konbu, a thick kind of seaweed used in Japanese cooking.
There are a few onsen hotels and a number of smaller minshuku (traditional inns) in Rausu, which also has a campsite.
There are whale watching tours in season departing from the town's fishing port and it's possible to hike to Rausu-dake - a challenging climb.
Tour boats leave from Utoro port to sail up and down the Shiretoko Peninsula.
It is 30km to Utoro on the other coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula through the Shiretoko Pass on the Shiretoko Odan Road when it is open for traffic in the summer months. There are buses all year to Kushiro (3 hours, 30 minutes). Rausu is around 70 km northeast from Nakashibetsu Airport, which has flights to Haneda and Chitose.
Utoro is the main tourist town and fishing port giving access to Shiretoko National Park on the western coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula.
The town offers some good restaurants right next to the harbor, known for their very fresh seafood including salmon roe, Hokkaido crabs and local sea urchins. There are plenty of traditional minshuku and ryokan in town, many of them with onsen.
The Oronkoiwa Rock behind the harbor gives a good view of the town (see above) and can easily be climbed. There is also a ski slope further in the mountains behind Utoro.
Tour boats leave from Utoro port to sail up and down the Shiretoko Peninsula.
Utoro is connected by bus with JR Shiretoko Shari Station (50 minutes) along National Highway 334 and Memanbetsu Airport (2 hours, 20 minutes). It is 30km to Rausu on the east coast of the Shiretoko Peninsula through the Shiretoko Pass on the Shiretoko Odan Road when it is open for traffic in the summer months.
One way to beat the intense summer heat in and around Nagoya is to escape northwards on the Taiheiyo Ferry to Sendai and Tomakomai in Hokkaido.
It's 770km from Nagoya to Sendai and a further 560km to Tomakomai putting some serious distance between you and the pizza oven that the Chubu area becomes in August and September.
The Nagoya-Sendai leg of the journey lasts 21 hours, 40 minutes overnight and it's a further night on the ship for the remaining 15 hours, 20 minutes from Sendai to Tomakomai on the west coast of Hokkaido.
Ships leave Nagoya at 7pm arriving in Sendai at 4.40pm the next day. For the return journey the ferry leaves Sendai at 12.50pm arriving in Nagoya at 10.30am the next day.
The ferry continues from Sendai to Tomakomai after a three hour break at 7.40pm arriving in Hokkaido at 11am the next day. Ships leave Tomakomai at 7pm arriving in Sendai at 10am the next day.
The ferries are spacious with both cabins and cheaper open style rooms where people sleep in an alloted space and are provided with a blanket and pillow.
The cabins come with TV and bunk beds and sleep up to four people. Larger suites and semi-suites are also available. The cheapest fare is 7,000 yen for Nagoya-Sendai in the open style accommodation.
The ferry also carries cars, motorcycles and bicycles for an extra cost.
Facilities include a restaurant, vending machines, games room and Japanese-style baths.
Hokkaido's road signs for its cities are very distinctive. The sign for Abashiri in the north of the island shows the drift ice (ryuho) that the area is famous for in winter.
Sapporo has its wooden clock tower (Sapporo Tokeidai) on North 1 West which is a Western-style building dating from the 1870s and built with help of the American government. The Tokeidai is the oldest building standing in the city.
Kitami goes for a rugby player with an onion as its head. Onions (as well as mint) are produced in this area of eastern Hokkaido and the town holds a rugby festival in August.
JR Hokkaido Railway Co. operates the SL Fuyu-no-Shitsugen-go steam train service through the Kushiro Wetlands in northern Hokkaido between Kushiro and Shibecha stations.
The train service, which reopened in 2000, operates only in winter from January to March and just once a day along the 48km route, which takes around 75 minutes and costs 1,840 yen for a one-way trip. The Shibecha departure time is about 2pm.
From April to September, a diesel train, the Norokko-go travels the same route.
Odori Koen neatly divides central Sapporo in to two. North of the 105m-wide, 13-block east-west park is Sapporo Station and south is the entertainment district of Susukino with its bars, strip joints and the Ramen Yokocho food alley.
The park was originally designed as a fire-break and is a welcome patch of green in the concrete sprawl of the city. At the eastern edge of the park is the 147m-high Sapporo TV Tower, which was designed by Tachu Naito, who was also responsible for the similar-looking Tokyo Tower.
Sapporo TV Tower was completed in 1957, followed by Tokyo Tower a year later. the digital clock was added in the 1970s. There's a viewing platform at 90m reached by a lift with fantastic views of the city, especially beautiful during the Snow Festival at night. Buy a ticket at the ground floor shop.
Odori Park is the site of Sapporo's main festival - the Snow Festival - held annually in February as well as the Lilac Festival in late May and Bon dancing in August.
Odori Station is the intersection station for Sapporo's three metro lines: the Namboku Line (Green), Tozai Line (Orange) and the Toho Line (Blue).
Sapporo is known for its ramen (Chinese egg noodles). The whole city is scattered with ramen joints, but the most famous place to try ramen is in Ramen Yokocho - an alleyway packed with steaming, crowded, noodle restaurants.
Ramen stock comes in three main flavors: miso (fermented soybean paste), shio (salt) and shoyu (soy sauce). Hokkaido ramen specializes in the miso variety. There are spicy kara-kuchi ramen options too.
Ramen Yokocho is in the entertainment district of Susukino not far from the Susukino metro station on the Namboku Line.
Everyone has their favorite ramen hole-in-the-wall. On a recent trip we were recommended Shirakaba Sanso. Shirakaba Sanso has a number of shops in Sapporo, one in Chitose and another in Aqua City, Odaiba, Tokyo.
This year the world famous event runs for seven days from February 5-February 11.
The three main sites for the various ice and snow sculptures are: Odori Park, Tsudome and Susukino - the latter the main entertainment area of Sapporo.
Besides the fantastic ice sculptures, other entertainments include an "Ice Queen" contest (held in Susukino, of course), snow slides and mazes and lots of great Hokkaido food and drink.
The recently concluded G8 Conference was held in Toyako (Lake Toya) in Hokkaido.
About 80km south west from Sapporo, Toyako is a popular onsen resort, famous for its beautiful mountains and lakes in the Shikotsu-Toya National Park.
Lake Toya is a caldera lake with the island of Nakajima at its center. Toyako Onsen is the main resort town on the lake's southern shore. 2km from town are the still active volcanoes of Usu-zan (732m) and Showa Shin-zan (402m), which were formed in the 1940s during the war. Mount Usu last erupted in 2000 and caused a temporary evacuation of Toyako Onsen.
The Volcanic Science Museum (Tel: 0142 75 2554) explains the formation of the two volcanoes and has audio-visual exhibits of the 1977 and 2000 eruptions. It is possible to visit the area damaged by the eruptions, the Konpira Parade and to walk to numerous, small crater lakes and see the mud flows from the volcanic activity in the area.
The main G8 Summit site was the Windsor Hotel Toya Resort & Spa, a luxury hotel perched on Mount Poromoi with amazing views of Lake Toya.
Access
There are trains from Hakodate and Sapporo and buses from Toya Station to Toya-ko Onsen. Alternatively, there are direct buses to Toya-ko Onsen from Sapporo.
