Drive the Shiretoko Pass from Utoro to Rausu for lunch at Jun no Banya and visits to the Shiretoko Rausu Visitor Center and Shiretoko Nature Center

26 August 2023

After our morning hike at the Shiretoko Five Lakes, we took a drive through the Shiretoko Pass (740 meters above sea level) to Rausu. Rausu is a coastal town located on the opposite side of the Shiretoko Peninsula and is well-known across Japan for the vast variety of fresh seafood which is fished on its coast. One of the town’s most popular products is the sea urchin, called uni in Japanese.

We could only do this drive in summer. The roughly 30 kilometer long mountain pass road is closed during the winter from early November to late April. Spectacular views of nearby Mount Rausu (1661 meters), Shiretoko's highest mountain, as well as Kunashiri Island across the Nemuro Strait may be seen from a viewpoint at the pass with free parking lots. Provided the weather is clear!

The first part of the drive was scenic and we could see Mount Rausu. We saw a couple of motorcyclists who stopped along the side of the road to snap photos of Mount Rausu. We could not do that in a car. By the time we arrived at the Shiretoko Pass, the whole area was foggy.

It is common that although the sky was clear in Utoro at sea level, there would be clouds high up in the mountain pass.

With nothing to see at the viewpoint, we continued on our journey to Rausu knowing that we would have another shot of visiting the Shiretoko Pass Viewpoint on our way back.

The journey down after the Shiretoko Pass to Rausu gave us a small concern. Our rental car became noisy. I was worried that we may have engine or tyre trouble. As we drove into Rausu, the noise disappeared. Later we found that our car was ok and it was the road surface that made the noise.

The weather in Rausu was bright and sunny. I have plan for lunch at a seafood restaurant called the Jun no Banya.

Jun no Banya

Like many eateries all over Japan, the exterior of the restaurant does not advertised its purpose. We could be standing right next to this wooden fisherman hut and not realising that it is a seafood restaurant.

Ran by several local ladies, Jun no Banya serves fantastic local seafood. This is a gem of a place for lunch in Rausu.

This is what the restaurant looked like as we drove into the side road from the highway.

Jun no Banya is located between the coastal highway 335 and the sea. We parked on a grass verge next to several other cars.

Entrance to Jun no Banya.

The interior is homely and colourfully decorated.

The interior is quite uniquely decorated.

Our table number (in yellow tag), fishing equipment, colourful paper lanterns and banners hang from the ceiling. There are also many photos of fisherman (probably related to the owners) at work.

Jun no Banya is a small restaurant. We came early, so we were seated immediately.

Upon entry, we were greeted by a friendly elderly lady who seated us, served us some ice water and gave us the menu.

When we tried to ask for an English language menu, she grabbed this young man who was standing near the entrance to explain the menu to us.

Menu at Jun no Banya. We could actually use Google Translate to understand the menu.

This young gentleman patiently explained in simple English that there are grilled fish dishes and recommended the grilled Atka Mackerel (Hokke). He told us there is also a rare and hence more expensive fish on the menu but we should try the Hokke which are fished off the waters of Rausu.

Grilled Atka Mackerel (hokke) and rice set for 1680 Yen.

Then he explained the sashimi rice bowls and we could choose 3 items from Ikura (fresh salmon roe), uni (sea urchin roe), crab legs or scallops to make up the 3-colour rice bowl.The most colourful bowl of food I had ever seen. 3 coloured rice bowl set with ikura, uni and kani (crab legs) for 2980 yen.

I would normally not order the ikura and uni when eating sashimi back home. But here in Hokkaido, these two elements are a must! The orange coloured ikura in Hokkaido is fresh and large in size. Bursting into salty and sweet flavour in the mouth, the ikura goes down well with the steamed rice sitting in the bottom of the rice bowls.

As for the sea urchin, this was my first time savouring this delicacy. I was pleasantly surprised by the creamy, sweet and yet salty taste of the sea in the yellow coloured uni.

My son ordered the special sashimi rice bowl set with plenty of fresh seafood elements, including the ikura and uni.

Sashimi rice bowl set for 2980 yen. This includes ikura (salmon roe), salmon, sweet shrimps, tuna, scallops, uni (sea urchin roe), squid, crab meat.

The young man also recommended the grilled shrimps that were not shown in the menu.

Grilled local shrimps.

With his help, we placed our orders to the elderly lady who is probably the wife of a local fisherman.

Happy with our orders! Freshest seafood is where the source is.

The miso soup that came with set has pieces of crab in it.

As we were enjoying our lunch, we discovered that the young man who helped us with the menu was a customer and not a restaurant staff!

As he was leaving the restaurant after his meal, he came over to check if we are happy with our meal. Such a nice guy!

After our delicious lunch, we used Google Map to find a cafe in Rausu for a post lunch coffee but our effort was in vain. Rausu is a small fishing town and there are not many cafes around. The one cafe that we found did not have air conditioning and it was just too warm to be comfortable in it.               

We decided to skip coffee and head back to Utoro.

Shiretoko Rausu Visitor Center

I have always enjoyed learning more about the places I visited. Hence we made a worthwhile stop at the Shiretoko Rausu Visitor Center on our way back to Utoro from Rausu. The visitor center is located along the Shiretoko Pass, just outside Rausu.

We were hoping that we could get some coffee at the visitor center but there was none. There were excellent displays and information on Shiretoko National Park's natural environment, the history and culture of the park.

There was eye catching skeleton of a killer whale (or orca) hanging from the ceiling. This orca skeleton came from a pod of killer whales that was stranded and died on the drift ice off the coast of Rausu.

Particularly interesting is the skeleton of an orca that hangs from the ceiling.

The bones in the flipper of the orca are structured similar to my hand.

I also find the 3D model of the Shiretoko Peninsula very interesting and informative. The model shows the Shiretoko mountain range in the center that divides the peninsula into two. Mount Rausu is the tallest mountain in that range and that was what we saw during our drive from Utoro to Rausu.

Model of the Shiretoko Peninsula with the Shiretoko Pass and Mount Rausu marked.

I was hoping to spot wildlife while in Shiretoko but luck was not on our side. We had to make do with looking at the very interesting taxidermy of Shiretoko wildlife including the brown bears, seals, fish owls and eagles.

The only brown bears we saw at Shiretoko were the stuffed ones.

The salmon is the bear’s favourite food in autumn. They feed on vegetation mostly.

The bears may not be big but few humans survived a brown bear attack.

There is small geyser located a short distance from the visitor center with blasts about every hour. The schedule is shown at the center's information counter. We did not go see the geyser as we had seen much better ones at Asahidake.

Shiretoko Pass

Continuing our drive up the Shiretoko Pass, we could hear the loud noise coming from the road surface again which confirms my suspicion that there was nothing wrong with our car.

We managed to see a bit of Mount Rausu peeking through the clouds.

Mount Rausu as viewed from the car as we drove up Shiretoko Pass from Rausu.

The Shiretoko Pass Viewpoint was still cloudy when we arrived but the sky was beginning to clear a little.

Foggy conditions at Shiretoko Pass Viewpoint on our back to Utoro.

View of the clouds rolling by at Shiretoko Pass Viewpoint.                                                      

It was a strange heavenly feeling to see the clouds rolling by.

Shiretoko Nature Center

Just before arriving at Utoro, we made a stop at the Shiretoko Nature Center. There is a trail course (about 20 minutes walk) to the Furepe Waterfall that starts from this place.

Compared to the Shiretoko Rausu Visitor Center, this place was more commercialised. In addition to exhibition of Shiretoko's nature and cinemas showing nature films (for a fee!), there are outdoor gear on sale and a cafe that sells food and coffee.

We got ourselves coffee from the cafe and sat there chilling, looking at the car park and the Shiretoko mountain range in the back.

My original plan was to do the short hike to the coast to see the Furepe Falls after our coffee. However, we were a little tired and the weather was just too warm. I have seen photos of Furepe Falls in the internet and the waterfall is not impressive. We curtailed our original plan and went back to our hotel to chill instead.

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Dinner at Namishibuki in Utoro

26 August 2023

Having learnt a lesson from the day before, we knew that there are few options for dinner at Utoro and the restaurants are typically fully booked if you go late. So it is good idea to make reservations (which we could not do since we don’t speak Japanese) or be the first few walk-in customers at the restaurant when it opens for dinner.

We had done some research the day before and selected Namishibuki as our place for dinner on the second night of our stay in Utoro.

Namishibuki is a ramen restaurant next to the sea and there is a large kanji word  “mian” or noodles at the wall of the restaurant. This popular restaurant opens at 5.30 PM and there were already a few people in the queue when we arrived at about 5.20 PM.  Parking at the side of the restaurant was free, although limited to about six cars.

There are benches for walk-in customers queuing outside the Namishibuki restaurant.

Once opened, we were seated in a room with 2 low Japanese style dining tables. The table next to window was reserved by a Japanese couple. Even then I could get a glimpse of the setting sun. 

View of the setting sun from inside the restaurant.

Ordering of the food is through a tablet that has multi-lingual functions. There are three types of ramen in the menu - miso, shio (salt), and soy sauce. All are made with a pork bone base. We could order the ramen with various options of toppings like onsen egg, additional meat, and garnishing.

Besides ramen, there are yakitori and other side dishes. For drinks, we tried the Calpis which is a Japanese non-carbonated soft drink with slightly acidic flavour.

These are the items we ordered.

The potatoes croquettes with butter on top are delicious. Highly recommended appetisers.

Char Siu Shio (salt) Ramen for me and my wife. With only salt used in seasoning, the Shio ramen best represents the original taste of the broth. The broth comes in a light whitish color.

The spicy miso ramen for my son who loves spicy food.

Pork and Chicken yakitori were perfectly cooked, tender and juicy.

Happy and satisfied with our dinner on this night.

Overall, we had a very good dinner at the Namishibuki. It was definitely better than the dinner we had on our first night in Utoro.

There was still some blue light of dusk when we left the restaurant at 6.30 PM. I saw some interesting cloud formations that looked like flying saucers. These are called lenticular clouds.

Did you spot the 2 flying saucers (UFO)?

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Drive from Utoro to Akan Mashu National Park with stops at sunflower field, Road to the Sky, Mount Shari Viewpoint and Sakura Falls

27 August 2023

After staying 2 nights in Utoro where we explored the Shiretoko National Park, we continued our road trip with a short drive to the Akan Mashu National Park.

Our route would pass by Shari town, which gave us another opportunity to visit the Road to the Sky viewpoint (location in Google Map) and also a sunflower field (location in Google map) that we saw a few days ago when we were on our way to Utoro. It was drizzling on that day so we did not manage to shoot nice pictures. We were blessed with better weather this morning.

Sunflower field near Shari

We parked our car safely on a small bay by the road. Although there is no fence, we made it a point not to encroach onto the farmer’s field.

Enjoying the views from the side of the road.

Fortunately, we were on higher ground so we were able to get good views of the entire field. We could even see the town of Shari and the Sea of Okhotsk behind the sunflower field.

We could see the town of Shari and the Sea of Okhotsk behind the sunflower field.

With the morning sun behind us and the sunflower field to the west of the road, all the blooms were facing us! You get the feeling of a parade commander standing in front of his troops.

    

Road to the Sky viewpoint

The Road to the Sky viewpoint is just a few hundred meters down the same road. This is a 28 km straight road that seems to lead to the sky in the horizon.  

We met some bikers with awesome looking Harley Davidson bikes.

Awesome machine at the Road to Sky viewpoint.

Thank heaven the sky is clear and we could see the road leading to the sky in the horizon.

Tour buses heading to the Road to the Sky viewpoint. They did not stop. Surprising.

Driving down the Road to the Sky

We continued towards Akan Mashu National Park by driving down the Road to the Sky.

Driving down the Road to the Sky.

We turned off at Highway 1115, somewhere near Shari and took the road southwards. We could see farmlands with Mount Shari in the background from the road.

Mount Shari viewpoint

View of Mount Shari from the car.

There is actually a roadside viewing area with parking lots (location in Google Map) where one could get good views of Mount Shari. Just before that, we saw a farm with fields of wilted sunflowers. Sunflowers blooming time span is short and weather dependent. So we were indeed lucky to have enjoyed seeing the field of golden sunflowers earlier.

View of Mount Shari partially shrouded by clouds at the Mount Shari roadside viewpoint.

Sakura Falls

One of the good things about visiting Hokkaido in summer is that we could potentially observe the salmon run. One of the best places to watch salmon jumping up and over waterfalls in Hokkaido is the Sakura Fall or Sakura-no-taki.

Sakura Falls is located along the Shari River and it is definitely worthwhile to take a slight detour off highway 1115 to go check out the salmons. Few knew of this place and the only way to get to the falls is by car (location of car park in Google Map). 

An information signboard at the car park indicated that about 3000 cherry salmon come back from the ocean to spawn at this river every year. From early June to late August, especially on warmer days, one could see these salmons attempting to jump up and over the waterfall to get to the breeding grounds.

  Information about the salmon run at Sakura Falls.

Typical bear warning sign at the Sakura Falls car park.

Like many places of nature in Hokkaido, there was a sign warning of bears. Bears love to eat salmons, so it was not surprising to see this sign. 

The short trail leading to the waterfall was quite obvious from the car park. Since we were visiting almost at the end of the salmon run, I was prepared for disappointment. We did not see many salmons when we were at the Onnebetsu Bridge a couple of days ago.

After a short walk through a small forest, we came to the falls.

First sight of Sakura Falls. Two other families were at the falls.

Lo and behold!

Salmon attempting to jump over Sakura Falls. 

We could see many salmons attempting to jump over the 3 meters high waterfall. As a nature lover, this was one of the highlights of my trip. It was exciting to watch this amazing sight, live and in person.

We spent some time taking photos and videos of the salmon. My wife was cheering them on but during this time, we did not witness any fish making it over the falls! So sad.

Video of salmon attempting to jump over Sakura Falls in Hokkaido

 

  Reddish hue on the cherry salmon. Shot taken with my Canon G5X using 1/1600 sec time exposure.

A photo of the family before leaving Sakura Falls.

So far, our morning drive from Utoro to Akan Mashu National Park with sightseeing stops had gone according to plan.

From Sakura Falls, we returned to highway 1115 and continued our journey towards Kaminokoike (our next sightseeing stop) located in the Akan Mashu National Park.

More on our exploration of the Akan Mashu National Park in the next post.

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