Monday, October 10, 2005
From Shiretoko, Hokkaido, Northern Japan
Here we are, having visited the Northern most point of Japan, just to see Sakhalin Island - or Russia to the rest of you. Yes, I though Id seen enough of it too!
So we`ve hitched from Sapporo in the west of the island all the way along the east and North Shore as far as the Shiretoko peninsula. The hitching has been incredible the amount of people we have met, wo have fed us, put us up for the night generally overwhelmed us with hospitality has been amazing...
Anyway, Shiretoko has recently been made World Heritage Site of Natural beauty etc - a sure way in Japan of endangering the whole place. The Lonely Planet recounts a story about how the government once made a particular type of Hokkaido Algae `a national treasure` and overnight the green balls of goo became an endangered national treasure. Shiretoko is amazing, but it is also amazing for its 3km traffic jams in the back of beyond.
It was OK though because we were walking, much to the amusment of the coach loads of tourists who ploughed by us.
We have seen more wildlife than is sensible to wave a stick at. Returning salmon coming in from the sea, and struggling up civil engineered Japanese rivers, getting ragged and haggard looking from their final push from salt to sweet water. Millions of deer, all sika, with the permanent expression of surprise on their faces, but best of all was a Brown Bear and her cub (from a safe distance) trundling through the forest on their way down to a river to add to the poor salmons` list of woes.
Trying to head south, getting nippy up here, even though it is far further south than Ireland and most of France, tent has survived a mad storm and us with it - some very funny photos of that...
We will be heading to Honshu in about a week I suppose、straight to Kyoto and Nara where we can properly complain about tourists and meet the Hokaido deers` urban relatives, who would take the food out of your pocket, according to Perrine. We shall be on our guard, we have become complacent in this very safe country.
It is a strange thing when it is the Monkeys and Deers you have to watch out for in tourist areas...
Makes a welcome change.
Until next time, we have a lot of writing to catch up on! We are publishing old posts as well, so that stuff we started writing 3 months ago may get published this month. However, I have to figure out how I can add a link to go to recently published posts. Next time!
So we`ve hitched from Sapporo in the west of the island all the way along the east and North Shore as far as the Shiretoko peninsula. The hitching has been incredible the amount of people we have met, wo have fed us, put us up for the night generally overwhelmed us with hospitality has been amazing...
Anyway, Shiretoko has recently been made World Heritage Site of Natural beauty etc - a sure way in Japan of endangering the whole place. The Lonely Planet recounts a story about how the government once made a particular type of Hokkaido Algae `a national treasure` and overnight the green balls of goo became an endangered national treasure. Shiretoko is amazing, but it is also amazing for its 3km traffic jams in the back of beyond.
It was OK though because we were walking, much to the amusment of the coach loads of tourists who ploughed by us.
We have seen more wildlife than is sensible to wave a stick at. Returning salmon coming in from the sea, and struggling up civil engineered Japanese rivers, getting ragged and haggard looking from their final push from salt to sweet water. Millions of deer, all sika, with the permanent expression of surprise on their faces, but best of all was a Brown Bear and her cub (from a safe distance) trundling through the forest on their way down to a river to add to the poor salmons` list of woes.
Trying to head south, getting nippy up here, even though it is far further south than Ireland and most of France, tent has survived a mad storm and us with it - some very funny photos of that...
We will be heading to Honshu in about a week I suppose、straight to Kyoto and Nara where we can properly complain about tourists and meet the Hokaido deers` urban relatives, who would take the food out of your pocket, according to Perrine. We shall be on our guard, we have become complacent in this very safe country.
It is a strange thing when it is the Monkeys and Deers you have to watch out for in tourist areas...
Makes a welcome change.
Until next time, we have a lot of writing to catch up on! We are publishing old posts as well, so that stuff we started writing 3 months ago may get published this month. However, I have to figure out how I can add a link to go to recently published posts. Next time!
// posted by Dub @ Monday, October 10, 2005 
