An unforgettable Guided trail in Shiretoko

Walking through a deep forest and untouched nature of Shiretoko, what awaits you at the end is the Okhotsk Sea. Looking over from a cliff, the view is stunning, especially on a sunny day.

This forest and cliff trail is often unnoticed because of the famous Shiretoko five-lake trail nearby. However, I definitely recommend this beautiful 3-hour hike for more adventurous souls. The ocean view along the coastal line is just incredible. This trail deserves more recognition.

Hiring a guide is a must

The trail is unmarked, and there is a high risk of encountering wild animals in summer (May-July). You have to hire a guide to go into the forest. Trekking with a guide provides you with so many insights - animal tracks you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise, indigenous trees and plants in Hokkaido, and different faces of the forest in other seasons. My guide explained to me how fishermen in Shiretoko catch fish in one of the coves we saw from the cliffs.

preserving nature in Shiretoko

The name Shiretoko comes from a word meaning “the end of the earth” in the language of Ainu (the indigenous people in Hokkaido). Located in the farthest east of Hokkaido, Shiretoko has a rich ecosystem that is home to a number of terrestrial and marine species, some of them being endangered.

Shiretoko Nature Foundation has been working for over 30 years to protect and manage the forest, monitor wild animals, and raise awareness of the environment in Shiretoko. The organization does a great job in taking care of beautiful nature in this vast region with only 40 staff, and with help of volunteers from all over Japan. You can learn about their preservation work at Shiretoko National Park Nature Center. They can inform you of general rules, dos and don’ts that you should be aware of to enjoy the nature before going on walks around the forest.

Walking into protected forest

You can find lots of signs of the wildlife in the forest, including those of brown bears. This is why you are only allowed to enter this forest with certified local guides. They are regularly trained to deal with encountering bears and ensure that both animals and humans are safe.

Bears in Shiretoko are more of a coward kind - they avoid contact with people. Therefore, hikers are instructed to make sounds by chatting and clapping to let bears know that they are nearby.

We didn’t encounter any bears on our walk, but we heard a bear sound and saw many footprints and claw marks. It felt surreal to be in an untouched forest with wild animals living there. Even having grown up in Hokkaido, I had never been exposed to such majestic nature. It is worth making a visit to Shiretoko, wherever you are traveling in Hokkaido.

Special thanks to Lan, our charming and friendly guide. She is a certified Shiretoko guide from Taiwan, and speaks Chinese, English and Japanese. The tour I had with her is this: forest and cliff tour. She also hosts salmon fishery tour in fall, taking advantage of her life and experience as a wife of a local fisherman in Shiretoko. This tour sounds so interesting… I have come back for it! If you are coming to Shiretoko, check out her website below!