Japan
Shiretoko Peninsula
Brown bears fishing for salmon on a peninsula the Ainu named the end of the Earth.
The bears were here first. On Shiretoko, a finger of volcanic land jutting into the Sea of Okhotsk at Hokkaidō's north-eastern tip, brown bears fish the salmon rivers each autumn and the only road stops well short of the cape. Visitors move through their country on boardwalks, with guides and by boat, and the rule is to avoid the bears, never to seek them. Shiretoko is where Japan's wilderness still has teeth.
The name comes from the Ainu for the end of the Earth, and UNESCO listed the peninsula in 2005 as the southernmost place in the northern hemisphere where sea ice regularly forms — every February drift ice from the Sea of Okhotsk grinds against the coast, and guides take visitors out to walk on it. The peninsula holds one of the densest populations of brown bears in Japan, and their autumn salmon runs bind sea and forest into one food chain. The Shiretoko Five Lakes boardwalk loops through primeval forest beneath the volcanic ridge, boat trips along the western coast pass under sheer cliffs where waterfalls pour straight into the sea, and the cape itself can only be reached by water.
Solo
Shiretoko's remoteness filters out all but the committed. Solo walkers take the elevated boardwalk at the Five Lakes or join a registered guide in bear season, and the boat trips need no company at all.
Couple
Drift-ice walks in February, whale-watching boats in summer, and hot-spring baths overlooking the sea — Shiretoko's extremity sharpens every shared experience.
- One of Japan's densest brown-bear populations lives here, and the boardwalks, guided walks and boat trips are built around leaving the bears undisturbed.
- Drift ice from the Sea of Okhotsk reaches the coast each winter — you can walk out onto it in a dry suit.
- The Shiretoko Five Lakes boardwalk loops through primeval forest beneath a volcanic ridge.
- Boat trips run beneath sheer coastal cliffs where waterfalls pour straight into the sea.
Salmon ikura don — glistening roe over rice at the fishing port, each egg popping with brine.
Rausu kombu, the kelp graded highest in Japan, in a broth at a harbourfront kitchen on the eastern shore.
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