Abashiri Royal Hotel

... ground. Arrived to sunny, warm weather (thankfully) and went to the Visitors center to see about some hiking. They nixed my idea of hiking to Tenninkyo Onsen nearby (avalanches apparently...) so I went up in the cable car to Mt. Asahidake, the tallest in the region, and snow shoed a bit up there around steaming sulphur vents and hiked down the slope. The down bit had a dicey few moments when I decided to not follow the ski slope down and instead some snow shoe tracks I ...

Abashiri is famous for having the harshest prison in the country. I think the old version of it was but the current buildings are much better. I visited the prison museum which has removed the old buildings and reconstructed them in the museum so you can see what conditions were like. It was very interesting even if I did get a little spooked ...

... readily reached by road, the spot is a magnet for tour buses and has a bustling tourist shop seasonally featuring Hokkaido produce. We had a delicious slice of melon as we watched the holidaymakers shop for curios. The modest access fee to the Lake Mashu viewpoint also includes access to Mount Iou, a slightly elevated volcano that last erupted 600 years ago. Dotted by bright yellow fumaroles where sulfurous steam is vigorously spewed, tt is rather stinky and surreal with its ...

... orientation given that evening in Japanese. By chance, there was a visitor there that night who was able to do some translation for us, but it sounded like much of the hiking was beyond our stamina and equipment. We settled for the easy, but rewarding short hike around several small lakes. Cutting short our planned stay in Shiretoko we decided to head to Akan National Park the next morning.

Before we start our hot spring, we are serve with traditional Japanese dinner - in japanese style I guess. We are all make to dress up in Kimono for the dinner so that we can all proceed to our long waited hot spring bath after that. Exactly like what people were saying about Japanese hot spring bath ...

... After all, for me, that's one of the main reasons I climb. There's nothing like the view from the top of a mountain, especially one you had to bust your ass to get up. Instead, I went to plan B. I rented a scooter and did a round trip of the island in about 3 hours. I really love scooters and it was fun to get out on one again, although I'm a bit too absent-minded to really be able to fully trust myself on one (that's why I'll never get a motorcycle-I'd end up ...

... the last thing I wanted to do was to start to tip over and have it carry me down the hill. So I took it slow and made it down to the bottom. The next 1.5 kilometers or so were all on the beach. It was a sandy beach though. It alternated from slick, small rocks that would be perfect for skipping to huge, sharp boulders that you had to crawl over. There was no trail per se and you had to just keep moving forward towards the small fishing village of Chuennai that was ahead...To ...

The Rundown: -Days: 14 -Kilometers Driven: approx. 1,700 -Money Spent: approx. 120,000 Yen -Places Visited: 3 (Rishiri/Rebun, Sapporo, Niseko) -Number of Rainy Days: 9 or more -New Friends Made: 1 -Broken Equipment: sleeping pad, daypack zipper, H2O bladder bag -Number of Times I ****** On My Shoes: 1 I had been waiting an entire year for these two weeks. I had ...

Realising that, with the funds dry, there would be zero possibility for le ski once we were back in Europe, Anti and I decided to try our luck in the very north of Japan. Skiing happens within a couple of hours of Tokyo, but if you're going pre-Christmas, it seems you've got to make the journey to the northern-most island - Hokkaido. The journey's a slog - 12 hours and ...

...