Originally Posted by
evergrn
Sorry I'm actually flying into Memenbetsu at night and then spending the night at a place called Shari from where Utoro is supposed to be an hour drive.
Also I had the time of the cruise wrong... it's 10a-1p. If I have to be there 30min before departure, I'd better leave Shari by 8.30am.
The one I booked is supposed to go all the way to the tip. That sucks that yours got cancelled. I hadn't even considered such possibility. The cruise seems like the highlight of visiting Shiretoko. Was the shorter cruise nice, and do they convert the 3hr cruise to the shorter one so that guests aren't completely left high and dry in case the longer cruise needs to be cancelled by weather?
Thanks for letting me know about the bear season. Didn't know about this either, but I guess I am going during the bear season and I will just stick to the boardwalk as we don't have a lot of time and I don't have the attention span for listening to rangers.
Oshirukoshin Falls is apparently on the way from Shari to Utoro. My guidebook says allow 30min, but isn't this waterfall just on the side of the road? Wouldn't a few minutes suffice for stopping by and taking pics?
Based on your comments, I will probably not bother checking out Rausu. But I still want to head to Kushiro that way because Google Map says it's only 20min longer via Rausu and moreover I'd like to check out the views of Russian islands.
When I was at Shiretoko in July four years ago as part of a two-week road/camping trip, the bear sightings from the cruise was about 50% of the departures IIRC. I personally did not like the cruise that much. I guess it depends if you see any bears. But if you are making the effort to go to Shiretoko, then of course you have to take the cruise, and spend as much time as you can around the five lakes. On the other hand, you can skip Rausa. I thought the drive to the high pass between Utoro and Rausa was nothing special.
As others have said, drive times will probably be longer than you think. There isn't much traffic once you leave Shiretoko until you get to the area around Obihiro. Officially speeds limits are 50 kph outside the toll roads, but those are really set for winter conditions, so you can get away with some speeding in the summer but best to follow traffic rather than lead. If you change up your routing, Lake Akan is worth a stop.