Exploring Akan & Shiretoko in Winter Drift Ice Walking,
Snowshoe Hiking, Cycling on Ice & Ainu Culture Walks

After arriving at Memanbetsu Airport (MMB), meet your tour guide at the arrival lobby. Direct flights to Memanbetsu Airport from Haneda Airport in Tokyo are available with JAL, ANA or AIR DO. Once your group is assembled, board a private vehicle to Hokkaido Museum of Northern People. The museum showcases the cultures that once flourished along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk in Hokkaido. Learn about the lifestyles of the people who lived in this extremely cold region and how their culture has influenced the Hokkaido of today.

From the museum head to Kitakobushi Shiretoko Hotel & Resort at Utoro, the gateway to World Natural Heritage Site Shiretoko. From here, there is a panoramic view of the Sea of Okhotsk, the setting for the following day’s events. A sightseeing boat pier, roadside station and convenience store are all within walking distance, making it one of the best locations in the area. A footbath, bar lounge and various other facilities overlooking the sea add to the pleasure of staying in Shiretoko.

After checking in, join a briefing about the itinerary before enjoying a buffet dinner at the hotel.

Dinner

A buffet dinner at the hotel. The 50 or so buffet dishes, which are both Japanese and Western, make full use of seafood from Shiretoko and other ingredients from Hokkaido’s farmland. Food is freshly prepared in open kitchens and a variety of sweets is served up by the restaurant’s pastry chefs.

Breakfast

A buffet-style breakfast at the hotel

Don snowshoes and begin hiking through the winter forest and into the open snowfields, where the views are better. Look out for traces of wildlife, such as footprints on the snow, while enjoying the otherworldly atmosphere created by the snow. After reaching the Furepe Falls observation point, spend time enjoying the half-frozen falls. From the sheer cliffs that are a feature of Shiretoko marvel at the sight of drift ice on the Sea of Okhotsk and the Shiretoko mountain range shimmering in the cold air before returning to the nature center.

Lunch

Seasonal seafood at a local restaurant run by a former fisherman.

In the afternoon, enjoy walking on the drift ice, an activity unique to Shiretoko in winter. Wearing a specially designed wetsuit, follow your guide across the surface of the sea. The ever-changing conditions mean the ice can often be like stepping-stones.

Buffeted by seasonal winds and ocean currents, pack ice drifts about 1,000 kilometers across the Sea of Okhotsk. The phytoplankton trapped in the ice blooms below the surface as the ice begins to melt in spring, generating huge amounts of zooplankton that feed on it. This attracts larger sea animals, such as seals and sea lions, in search of fish, as well as seabirds and even larger mammals such as orca. In addition, migrating salmon and trout bulk up with marine nutrients as they head to their river spawning grounds and, in doing so, become a valuable food source for land-based animals such as brown bears and white-tailed eagles. Eventually, animal droppings and carcasses return to the soil and become nutrients for plants that enrich the Shiretoko forests. Dead leaves are washed into rivers as the snow melts and carried to the sea, where they become food for sea animals. In this way, the drift ice supports the ocean food chain, with phytoplankton at the bottom and the orca at the top, as well as the unique ecosystem that connects land and sea.

This experience allows observation of winter wonders that cannot be seen from the land. These include the size and colors of the ice slabs. After the drift ice walk, follow your guide to a point that offers superb views of the sunset. End your day in Shiretoko and return to the hotel to see the dramatic sight of the sun setting over the ice.

Dinner

Japanese and Western-style course meals using ingredients from the mountains and sea at the hotel.

Breakfast

A buffet-style breakfast at the hotel

Leave your hotel and travel about 10 minutes by private vehicle to the Shiretoko Nature Center to continue from the previous day.

Today’s snowshoe hike is centered on the Shiretoko forest. Follow your local guide into the majestic atmosphere of the primeval forest, a place where few people have ventured. Hike through the snow into the depths of the forest. Look out for the reflections of birds and trees in the snow, as well as the footprints of the creatures that live in this harsh environment, which is an important part of the Shiretoko ecosystem. The tip of Shiretoko Peninsula, Cape Shiretoko can be seen from the open snowfields.

Lunch

At a local restaurant specializing in Shiretoko seafood dishes such as seafood on rice.

Following lunch, leave by private vehicle to hot spring hotel Lake Akan Tsuruga WINGS on the shores of Lake Akan. Enjoy this unique environment from the moment you enter and see the Ainu gallery in the lobby. The hotel offers a number of rock baths with various temperatures, aromas and herbs, as well as healthful meals that use seasonal ingredients and as few additives as possible.

Dinner

Japanese kaiseki meal that makes the most of seasonal ingredients from Hokkaido’s

mountains and seas at the hotel

Breakfast

A buffet-style breakfast at the hotel
Leave the hotel by private vehicle with an English-speaking guide and an expert on local nature.

Onneto, at the foot of the active volcano Mount Meakan, is a small lake with a
circumference of about two and a half kilometers. The name means “big old lake” in the
indigenous Ainu language.

Don snowshoes before entering the deep snow of the Sakhalin spruce primeval forest. Make your way through the forest. Look out for traces of wildlife, such as footprints on the snow, and enjoy the vivid contrast between the evergreen leaves and the white snow. You reach Lake Onneto in about an hour. The lake, which has an unusual sheen in summer, freezes during the cold months. From the frozen surface of the lake bask in the magnificent views of Mt.Meakan and Mt.Akan-Fuji shimmering silver in the crisp air.

Lunch

At a local restaurant that specializes in fish from Lake Akan.

In the afternoon, experience cycling unique to this season and unique to Lake Akan. On a fat bike with tires 4.8 inches wider and tires one size thicker than usual cycle across the frozen expanse of Lake Akan while marveling at Mt. Oakan towering over you. There is an irresistible feeling of exhilaration in cycling on ice.

Dinner

A casual dinner of mostly seafood, such as sashimi and grilled fish, from Hokkaido

Breakfast

A buffet-style breakfast at the hotel

Leave the hotel by private vehicle with an English-speaking guide and an expert on local nature.

Equipped with snowshoes, set out to hike the Bokke Nature Trail. In the Ainu language, “bokke’ means “a place that is boiling” and refers to the geological phenomenon of mud volcanoes. The bokke forest is a mix of coniferous trees such as spruce and fir and broad- leaved trees such as katsura and mizunara. It is also rich in wildlife and home to many Yezo sika deer and squirrels. This two-hour hike offers the opportunity to fully enjoy all that the volcanic Akan Mashu National Park has to offer in winter.

Lunch

On local ingredients at a long-established restaurant at Akanko Onsen.

Hokkaido is dotted with villages where Japan’s indigenous Ainu people live. With some 120 residents, Lake Akan Ainu Kotan is Hokkaido’s largest Ainu village. Nature is highly respected in Ainu culture. With instruction by a local Ainu guide, begin the afternoon by making a traditional Ainu musical instrument known as a mukkuri. After this, learn from your guide how important the lakeside forest once was for food, clothing and shelter.

Hear stories of the forest and discover the role the many plants played in traditional Ainu lifestyle. The forest is the ideal place to test out your newly made mukkuri. Mt. Oakan, which is one of the “One Hundred Mountains of Japan”（日本百名山）, can be seen from among the trees. Spend time here taking in views long enjoyed by the Ainu and gain a deeper feeling for their culture. Snowshoes are worn if necessary.

Dinner

A course dinner with teppanyaki centered on Ezo venison from Hokkaido at a local restaurant

Breakfast

A buffet-style breakfast at the hotel

Check out of the ryokan and leave for Kushiro Station or Kushiro Airport by private vehicle.