What it looks like
Photographed in late August
Shiretoko, a UNESCO World Heritage peninsula. Crane marshes. The end of the railway line. Multi-day journeys, now in preparation.
Sapporo, Otaru and Niseko sit on the western side of Hokkaido. The east is another country: Kushiro is about four hours from Sapporo by limited express train, and beyond it the towns thin out into marsh, farmland and coast.
That distance is the point. The roads are empty, the wildlife is close, and the places below are ones we have walked and filmed ourselves.
The Shiretoko Peninsula was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2005. It is one of the few places where you can see, in a single landscape, how the sea feeds the land: drift ice arrives each winter, plankton bloom beneath it, salmon follow, and bears and eagles follow the salmon upriver.
Much of the peninsula has no roads at all. What you can reach is enough: lakes behind the coast, a waterfall beside the highway, and deer that do not move when a car goes by.
Shiretoko is among the southernmost places in the northern hemisphere where seasonal sea ice forms. That ice drives an unusually rich link between marine and land ecosystems.
One of the densest brown bear populations in the world lives here, with Ezo deer, Steller's sea eagles in winter, and the rare Blakiston's fish owl.
The elevated boardwalk at Shiretoko Five Lakes, Oshinkoshin Falls beside Route 334, and the deer of Rausu. All filmed by us in late August.
Three short films from the east: a 28-second journey through Shiretoko and Kushiro, the seafood stalls of Washo Market, and the red-crowned crane that gave us our name.
An elevated boardwalk of about 800 metres, fenced with electric wire, lets you cross brown-bear country without a guide. The Sea of Okhotsk opens up at the end.
→SHIRETOKORight beside Route 334, a few minutes before Utoro. Park, climb the steps, and the spray reaches your face.
→On the Rausu side of the peninsula, Ezo sika deer graze on the verges in summer. Slow down, stay in the car, and they carry on.
Buy a bowl of rice at the entrance, then walk the stalls and choose your toppings one by one. Locals call it kattedon.
→Kushiro Wetland is the largest in Japan, and home to the red-crowned crane. In winter the birds gather and dance on the snow.
Nemuro is Japan's easternmost city. The railway stops here, and the peninsula beyond runs out toward the sunrise.
Not yet. We launch in 2027 with private day tours from Sapporo, and multi-day journeys to the east will follow. Email us and we will tell you as soon as they open.
At least two or three nights. The distances are long, and the best hours are early morning and dusk.
Transport is arranged with licensed charter partners and public transport. We plan the route and guide you along it.
Yes. Shiretoko is brown-bear country. The elevated boardwalk at the Five Lakes is fenced and open without a guide; the ground trails require a lecture or a guide in some seasons.
Tell us what you dream of — a season, a landscape, a pace. We'll design around it and reply within 48 hours.
hello@yukizuru-hokkaido.com