Travel Sapporo to utoro

We will be driving from Sapporo to Kushiro this month. Will stay the night in Kushiro. Then traveling towards Utoro via coast -nemuro, lake Furen, Shibetsu, Rausu then Utoro over 2 days, 1 night. Looking for recommendations - stay a second night in KUshiro and drive to Utoro in 1 day, or leave Kushiro, take it easier and stay somewhere along the coast? ( we want to go via coast, as we will be traveling to and staying at Akan after a few days on Shiretoko peninsula)

If you want to stick to the southern coast, consider staying a night in the Nemuro Peninsula. Cape Nossapu is the easternmost point of Japan and is said to witness the first sunrise in the country.

If you enter the Shiretoko Peninsula from the south and go to Rausu before Utoro, take special note of Route 334 known as the Shiretoko Pass which is the shortest route between Rausu and Utoro by cutting across the peninsula. Unstable weather condition there sometimes can cause road closure. Even during summer times it can be closed daily as early as 15.00 in the afternoon. We drove from Utoro to Rausu early in the morning and when we returned in the afternoon, the fog and mist was still there causing visibility down to only a few feet.