Shiretoko Rausu Lincle, Hokkaido, Japan

5Kevin P 5:00 PM Jun 1, 2018

3 Amazing Trips!
We had 3 wonderful trips organised by a friend through Lincle Shiretoko Rausu. This is a small tour company run by Naoko Goto, who used to be a Ranger at the Shiretoko National Park, so she knows her stuff. Our first trip was to the morning auction at the Rausau Fish Market. Our guide was Mai, who works with Naoko. We got to see the market at a quiet time of the year. There were only 2 auctions scheduled for that day. In their peak season, winter, there are 7 a day. The shed in which the auction was held was about 100m long, and there were 5 or 6 rows of stacked fish crates about the size of a milk crate. Some of the stacks were single crates, holding 2-3 large salmon which were selling for about NZ$29/kg, and the next stack could be 2-5 high, holding herring or sardines. There were a lot of various sized flounder, which may have been different species. There were octopus and what appeared to be a conger eel! Within 20 minutes of the first crate being sold, the auction had moved 40-50m down the shed and the first lots were being loaded on to trucks. Meanwhile, while we were there, 2 other boats unloaded their catches, which were just added on to the lines of crates waiting to be sold. The fish was definitely fresh. Some of them were still flapping! That afternoon, we got on to a small open boat of the type that is used to tend the seaweed and shellfish farms. There were 4 tourists, the guide, Naoko Goto, who had been a Ranger in the Shiretoko National Park, and the skipper. It was going to be cold, so they gave us cold weather gear to put on over all the stuff we already had on. We certainly needed it! We spent about 2.5 hours going up the coast to the tip of the peninsula, about 20km. We saw 18 brown bears (a record) a red fox, some deer, some sealions and 3 eagles. We got to less than 100m from one of the bears and her cub, but we were still some 10m off the beach, so we were not at any risk. We were only about 20m from the fox when it appeared from behind a big rock on the shore. It really was a fantastic trip! The following day, Naoko took us on a hike through the snow on snowshoes, at the top of the pass over the Shiretoko Peninsula just south of Mt Rausu. We hiked up the North-western slope of Tenchozan peak to the rim of an old crater with a fairly large pond in the bottom of it. The pond was still frozen. We were pretty pleased that we managed the 5km hike without any problems, apart from falling over quite a few times! Coming back down the slope was easier without the snowshoes. We had a brief lunch at a café and then went to the Rausu Visitor Centre, on to the geyser and then walked over to the hot springs that are the site of a public baths. It seems to be very popular with the local fishermen, who come and soak in the hot pools after a hard day's fishing. This tour was just before the leaves came out on the deciduous trees, which meant that we had some fantastic views of the surrounding countryside that we would not had been able to see when all the trees were in full leaf. However, it was pretty obvious that this area would be absolutely spectacular in the fall. We had the advantage of being accompanied by a fluent Japanese speaker, but both Naoko and Mai are working to improve their English and once they have managed that, they will be able to provide these wonderful tours to non-speakers of Japanese.