ウトロ漁協婦人部食堂 Utoro Wife of Fisherman's Co-op Canteen

It's almost 3pm when we got back to Utoro and a lot of the places have stopped serving lunch. Before they left Hong Kong Airport, mum took a few photos from the pages of an Hokkaido travel guide. One of the shots was the address to this place with a weird name and the best thing was it stayed open until 4pm for lunch. It didn't take long to find once the GPS directed you to the nearby area. Three middle-age ladies were chatting in the restaurant when they arrived.

The rice bowls were nothing fancy, just fresh ingredients.

Another panorama taken with NEX-5

Kamuiwakkayu Falls カムイワッカ湯の滝

Before you visit Kamuiwakkayu Falls カムイワッカ湯の滝, you would read the various travel guides online telling you that the upper sections are all closed due to one reason or another and only the lowest section is still open. "What a shame, I have missed the ultimate hot spring experience." would probably be your first reaction.

When mum and dad got there, they decided not to venture up even the first section. Water was running down over the rocks. Walking up would be just about doable barefoot but walking down may not be fun.

Perhaps the ultimate hot spring experience is only for the dare devils.

Kamuiwakkayu Falls カムイワッカ湯の滝

Shiretoko Five Lakes 知床五湖

If you ask mum what left the deepest impression on her in Shiretoko Five Lakes, it wouldn't be the clear blue sky or the zigzag wooden structure leading out to one of the lakes or even the mirror-like reflection of the beautiful scenery on the lake. It would be...... BUGS!! And they were everywhere and they swarmed you as soon as you stand still for more than 2 seconds. They would look for any orifice in your body and decide to fly in. "Psssst....pssst...", imagine that.

Get off me!!

Somehow we didn't see much being said about these little flying pests in the same breath when the natural beauty of this place was mentioned.

Panorama shot by NEX-5, no more photo stitching

They didn't get to see the other 4 lakes but then given the bugs, not sure if they would enjoy hiking further.

Shiretoko National Park 知床国立公園

It was a short drive from the town of Shari to Shiretoko National Park and there are a few things sights  worth stopping by along the way.

Oshinkoshin Fall オシンコシンの滝 - unfortunately it was closed to visitors on the day due to landslide hazard. Despite that, it's a real tourist trap and the souvenir shop there did great business.

Oshinkoshin Fall オシンコシンの滝

In every corner of the earth, there are rocks which resemble life-like creatures. Lion Rock in Hong Kong is just one of those examples. But the proof of the pudding is when you travel past the object and think "my god isn't that a giant xxxx?" without ever learning it is there in the first place. The Turtle Rock in Shiretoko 知床の亀岩 had that effect on mum. Guess it's another good thing not to do too much research before you visit a new place. You can see the turtle in winter hibernation here.

Shiretoko's Turtle Rock 知床の亀岩

Sunny Hokkaido - why mum came back with a tan!

You're never far from local desserts and cakes.

Still need to look up what this might be.

They just missed a bus going up the National Park when they arrived at the Utoro tourist center. While waiting for the bus, they realized that only one foot path walking out to the Shiretoko Five Lakes was opened. All the other ones were closed because of bears. The bus ride up the National Park was reminiscent to the one in New Zealand's Doubtful Sound.

Hotel Grantia in Shiretoko ホテルグランティア知床斜里駅前

Mum and dad spent a total of nine nights in Hokkaido and they stayed in a different hotel every single night.  Even when they stayed in the same place, they would still move from one hotel to another. Guess there's no better ways to find out about hotels......

The room was spacious and modern with 2 single beds.

Bird's eye view from the window.

Hotel Grantia in Shiretoko must be the best value among all the places they stayed during this trip. For JPY 8,900 each, they got a room with a view of the beautiful JR station, the bird sculpture and the nearby mountains. It was also half-board, ie you get breakfast and dinner for the price. While breakfast was served in the hotel, dinner was provided by one of the nearby restaurants, which you picked prior to arriving at the hotel. They took the "red" pork shabu-shabu  サチク赤豚 しゃぶしゃぶ　option for dinner. The servings were hearty and the locally produced pork was tender. The best thing was - you pay the same JPY 8,900 for just one person, ie no single-premium, staying in the same twin bedroom.

サチク赤豚 "red" pork raised in Shiretoko

Evening in Shari, Shiretoko

The sun was setting with its warm orange glow when they arrived at Shari 斜里 in Shiretoko 知床. The hotel where they were staying for the night was literally 1 minute walk away from the Shari JR Station, and the station did not look like any other JR station.

Birds form an important part of Shiretoko's heritage. The area supports 264 species of birds which account for 49% of Japan's total. Little wonder that the most prominent art piece in this tiny town is a semi-transparent sculpture of a bird made from wire.

Road trip from Asahikawa to Shiretoko

Waking up in Asahikawa, they headed for the a long day ahead of them driving. 294km between Asahikawa 旭川 and Shari 斜里 in Shiretoko 知床 via Monbetsu 紋別.

Their first planned stop was Sounkyo which was about 1 hour drive from Asahikawa. But somehow the GPS failed to recalibrate after they perhaps took a wrong turn. As if there was a conspiracy to stop them going there, all the road signs pointing towards Sounkyo also suddenly disappeared.

So they carried on driving. After making a quick pit stop, a tank refilling stop at one of the Idemitsu outlet and a scenic detour to Ryuhyou misaki 流氷岬, they were all feeling hungry. Monbetsu was only a short drive away. Crabs and scallops are famous there and from a leaflet they picked up from an earlier pit-stop, there is a whole street full of restaurants.

Will have to come back for this!!

It was just before 1pm when they arrived there. The town looked deserted and shutters were all down for almost all the restaurants along the street. It almost felt eerie. They found one small shop opened for lunch and it turned out that most of the restaurants only opened at night. While they would love to just sit down and eat there, but the restaurant only served a simple menu for lunch and they wanted crab. The owner was so kind that they called and checked if a crab restaurant nearby was opened.

Once they confirmed the crab restaurant was open for lunch, they walked over and climbed a steep flight of stairs to a small restaurant owned by a couple. They shared a deep-fried crab legs and a crab shabu-shabu among the three of them. It was a delicious lunch.

The 2 of them have worked together for 45 years in this shop!

The right way to eat crab - have someone do the work for you.

Everything cooked from scratch ......