Utoro, located on the west coast of Shiretoko, is the only medium-sized town of the peninsula. All the area is a National Park, and is probably the wildest part of Japan. Bears can even be encountered!  More than half of it can not be reached by car, and the place is a paradise for hikers. Located on the north of Hokkaido, Lakes were stil frozen in May. In the middle of the winter, the sea itself is covered with ice, and only icebreakers can travel around.

Food itself is very oriented toward the sea. The most famous dish from the area is the Hokkaido crab. Shops and restaurants specialised in this dish are located all around the town. It is even possible to buy crabs to bring home as omiyage...

Here is a picture of Oshin Koshin water fall, located just at the entrance of Utoro. It was selected as "one of the 100 most beautiful waterfalls of Japan". I didn't even know there were 100 waterfalls in the country, and this one is really is little miserable...

More interesting place are the Shiretoko 5 lakes - five lakes grouped together between the sea and the mountains. Most of them were frozen at that time, but we enjoyed walking around them - in the snow. As in every touristic place in this country, everything is well organised for the visitors... Easy access by car and a large parking, a visitor center, maps and five different walks to choose from. We decided to go for the long one - 1.5 km. Since most of the visitors choose the shortest way, it was really pleasant.

Another usual sight of the peninsula - deers crossing the road. Although we saw more than one hundred of them, it was impossible to get any for dinner, unfortunately...

One of the onsen I absolutely wanted to visit - a waterfall of hot water - was not accessible, the road being closed until the end of May... Shikataganai...

The road from Utoro (east coast) to Rausu (west one) goes through a pass at about 750 meters high. The road itself is really impressive, with up to 3 meters of snow on both sides. From the road, Russia can be seen in a clear day - as the one we had. More precisely, the island of Kunashiri-to, which is claimed both by Japan and Russia; for now, Russian are occupying it for more than 50 years, and obviously don't want to give it back to Japan.

We also stopped at Kuma no yu (Bear hot spring) on the road. A free rotenburo with a mixed bath (basically, it was only mixed because Seiko came with me in the largest bath, all the other women staying together in the "private" women bath) and a nice view on a river. The water was quite basic (pH 9) and definitively too hot for me...