Eastern Hokkaido tour

We are planning an 8-day drive around Eastern Hokkaido next May, starting from Memanbetsu and ending at Kushiro. Can anyone tell me their thoughts on the following please?

1) Is the eastern coast south of the Notsuke Peninsula really worth seeing (e.g. Nemuro) or is it more or less the same as the section from Rausu southwards?

2) If we are going to the Kushiro Wetlands anyway, are the Kiritappu Wetlands also worth seeing, or more or less the same (in late May)?

3) Would the long drive down from Kushiro to Cape Erimo and back be worth doing? Aside from the cape itself, does the scenery make it worthwhile?

Many thanks.

Not knowing what you consider to be "not worth seeing", makes answering your questions rather difficult. If you are looking for spectacular mountain scenery with dramatic vistas around every turn, you would be sorely disappointed. However, if you have no problems with rural scenery within a sparsely populated area by all means it would be "worth seeing".

I would suggest that you download Google Earth, turn on the Panaramio photos and take a gander for yourself. You may also want to zoom into ground level and take some virtual tours along the coast. Then decide if that area is someplace you wouldn't mind visiting.

Good luck!!

Hi jon.
I'm Japanese who had lived in Kushiro until several years ago. I'm glad if this personal opinion could be helpful for you.


1)Is the eastern coast south of the Notsuke Peninsula really worth seeing (e.g. Nemuro) or is it more or less the same as the section from Rausu southwards?

Notsuke Penisnsula (Todowara) is quite uniqe and impressive place. But there is nothting to see in Nemuro Pninsula including Nemuro town and Noshappu cap (except Rossian coast guard ship you can eventually see form Noshappu cap)

2) If we are going to the Kushiro Wetlands anyway, are the Kiritappu Wetlands also worth seeing, or more or less the same (in late May)?
Kiritappu is famous place for nature flowers, but May is too early for them. Actually, wetlands scape is not so different between Kushio and Kiritappu, so I recommend you to shortcut Kiritappu in this season.

3) Would the long drive down from Kushiro to Cape Erimo and back be worth doing? Aside from the cape itself, does the scenery make it worthwhile?

Erimo cap as well as driving rote for erimo have very desolate scape. Unless you want to have sentimental journey, the cost-effeciveness for driving Erimo is not so high, I guess.

Other recommendation

1. Hills landscape from Memanbetu airport to Abashiri town is very beautiful. It is comparable to famous Biei hills in center Hokkaido. Most popular place is 'meruhen no oka (fairly tail hill)' along with the national rute 39. But, landscape from oter side prefectural roads is entirely much more dinamic and beautiful.

2. Lake Onneto, 30min drive from Lake Akan, is small but very picturesque place. Lake Onneto is also famous for hot spa fall, but unfortunatelly it is currently closed due to environmental problems. Neverthless, it is still worth seeing.

3. If you plan to stay in Akan spa, Hotel Tsuruga is the best. The most popular accomodation for native Hokkaido ppl.

4. Climate of east Hokkaido in late May is very unstable. You should prepare an outfit for cold weather.

I wish you can enjoy a stay in Hokkaido. Sorry for my clumsy English. I'm now under studing English, so it would be most grateful if you could point out grammatical errors in this post.

Kiyoshi

Many thanks Kiyoshi-san for a very useful reply - and don't worry, your English is very good! Your suggestions have been really helpful in deciding our route, and I was especially interested in the information about the Memanbetsu-Abashiri area. We are thinking of staying our first night at one of the Tsuruga hotels in this area, after our flight lands at 2pm. If you have any suggestions for a good scenic route from the airport I'd be very interested.

We'll spend two nights in the Shiretoko area, probably at Utoro, so if you know anything about hotels there, or about trips we can take by land or sea up the peninsula that would be great.

After that we'll drive across to Rausu, then down to Notsuke before we drive inland to the lakes area. Then we'll go down to Kushiro from there.

BTW, anything in the Obihiro area worth seeing?

Thanks again for your interest and help.

If you are in eastern Hokkaido during May, consider going for some flower parks for tulip and pink moss:
Kamiyubetsu Tulip Park
http://www.town.yubetsu.lg.jp/tulippark/en/index.htm
Takinoue Park
http://town.takinoue.hokkaido.jp/02hana/phlox/kouen.html
Shibazakura Park
http://www.shibazakura.net/
Taiyo-no-Oka Engaru Park
http://cosmos-love.com/english/outline/index.html

Sites worth going for in Shiretoko Peninsula includes Oshin Koshin Waterfalls, Shiretoko Nature Centre, Furepe Falls, Shiretoko Go-ko Five Lakes, Shiretoko Pass, Rausu Tourist Info. Centre/Shiretoko Natural Musuem, Hikari-goke, Seseki Onsen, Kunashiri Tenboto, etc. Kamuiwakka-no-taki Falls would be another Shiretoko highlight but the only shuttle link would not be operating till mid July.

In Utoro you can opt for a sightseeing cruise of the Shiretoko Peninsula:
http://www.ms-aurora.com/shiretoko/en/#cruise
http://kamuiwakka.jp/cruising/

If you're staying in Akan-ko, Tsuruga IS indeed the place to go for. After being there once, a friend went back there this summer just to enjoy its rotenburo.
http://www.tsuruga.com/

In the suburb of Obihiro are 2 interesting rail stations worth driving out to see, the Aikoku and Kofuku stations. The Kofuku station in particular is popular where many newly-weds go for blessing with a different twist.
http://www.city.obihiro.hokkaido.jp/shoukoukankoubu/kankouka/c020201ai...

Inside Green Park in Obihiro, you can take a look at a long park bench which for some time had held the record of being the world's longest bench. In town do not forget to try out the famous Butadon. We had to line up outside the street to wait for the restaurant to open for lunch.
http://www.obikan.jp/lang/english/foods.shtml
http://www.rurubu.com/sight/detail.aspx?BookID=A0103360
Another must try is the popular strawberry chocolate. Although you can buy it from other places in Hokkaido, the HQ of the sweet factory is in Obihiro.
https://www.rokkatei-eshop.com/eshop/contents/top/
http://www.rurubu.com/sight/detail.aspx?BookID=A0103380
Still on food, you may take a look at the interesting yatai stalls in town. Note that they are only opened in the evening starting around 18.00.
http://www.kitanoyatai.com/

If you stay long enough in Obihiro, a side trip to the Tokachi Millenniu Forest may be worthwhile. You can go for an unique tour riding a Segway.
http://www.tmf.jp/index_en.html

Another really useful and informative reply. Many thanks William.
Jon.

Memanbutu-Abasihi rute.
You will firstly take rute 39 to Abashiri. In Memanbetu town, you can choose right turn to prefectural rute 246 which is scenic rute from memanbetu to abashiri. At the turning point, you can see blue trafic guide directing 'Koshimizu' with rute number 246. If you do not choose right turn, 'meruhen no oka' is just only 1km ahead from the point.

Hotels
Utoro:
There are several contemporary hotels in Utoro, but 'Shiretoko daiiti hotel' is provably most popular. (http://shiretoko-1.com) I stayed once, and indeed was satisfied. Inner pool for kids is also available.

If you want to avoid noise from group tours, Hotel Tino Hate in Iwaobetu onsen near shiretoko 5 lakes might become another candidate.(http://www6.ocn.ne.jp/~iwaobetu/index.html) It stands in unexplored region surrounded by wild natures. I never visit there.

Rause:
I do not know details about Rause.
Hotel Marumi (http://shiretoko-rausu.com/) is popular for stunning supper meal.

Inner land:
I strongly recommend Hot spring inn Daiiti in Yoroushi, Nakasibetu. (http://www.yoroushi.jp/SB/)
This small hotel is not luxury, but calm, peaceful environment along with creek and Japanese style meals are perfect. With luck, you can encounter beautiful ezo-owl during night. A part of open-air bath is accessed from both bathes for male and female (partially mixed both). I stayed three times with my family and/or family probands and all of them were completely satisfied. Personally I prefer Daiiti to Tsuruga. Reservation is only available via telephone and I don't know whether they can understand English.

As william5 suggested, late May is a good season for Pink moss (Shiba-sakura). Higashimokoto-park (http://www.shibazakura.net/) is 1 to 2 hours drive from Lake Kusshara and worth visiting.

Kiyoshi

Once again, many thanks Kiyoshi-san. This is all very useful to me.

Kiyoshi-san mentioned that there were a number of 'contemporary' hotels in Utoro/Shiretoko. Apart from Shiretoko Daichi, does anyone know of any others? I realise this is a fairly remote, rural area but would welcome info on modern, new (boutique?) places if there happen to be any.

Also, does anyone know anything about Hotel Hana Blanc in Kushiro? It looks very funky...just wondering if it might be a love hotel or just a very modern concept.

Also, does anyone know anything about Hotel Hana Blanc in Kushiro? It looks very funky...just wondering if it might be a love hotel or just a very modern concept.

Hotel Hana Blanc is a love hotel.
My sister's family live close to the hotel.


I recommend Daiichi in Yoroushi Kiyoshi-san mentioned as well.