Shiretoko National Park
Siretoko National Park is a peninsula in the east of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The name of the peninsula comes from the language of the Ainu people and means "the edge of the earth". From the eastern tip of the peninsula, the island of Kunashir is clearly visible. This is one of the least populated and cultivated territories of Japan.
The excellent conservation of wildlife in the national park « Siretoko » allowed UNESCO to add it to the World Heritage List in 2005. At the same time, a desire was expressed to expand the area of the protected object by adding the territory of a number of the Kuril Islands and transforming the facility into a joint Russian-Japanese Peace Park".
Siretoko Peninsula – quite narrow and long. His pride is considered to be the Rausudake peak, towering 1661 meters above sea level and the volcano Io. In addition, the shores of the peninsula rise above the Sea of Okhotsk more than a hundred meters, it is thanks to this that every tourist has the opportunity to admire small and large waterfalls, whose waters fall directly into the sea, and follow the colonies of numerous birds.
Another attraction of Siretoko Park, which attracts a huge number of tourists here, is that the age of forests located on the peninsula is not amenable to any calculation. Among the local residents there is a long-standing belief that these trees have always been here: they stand a rather dense wall through which only the local population can squeeze through, who knows this area perfectly.
At the entrance to Siretoko, each tourist is given a spray can with a special « anti-freight » gas and recommend that you make noise as much as possible, stay in a group, ring in various bells and not move away from the tourist trail. Otherwise, as it is written on one of the local posters, the probability of death will increase to almost 100%.
The most affordable and popular place to visit in Siretoko – "five lakes". Probably a very beautiful natural place. Alas, a road for tourist buses was built to it, out of five lakes only two ( others are closed due to the fact that the bears ) noticed there, and along the paths along these two lakes there are continuously such groups of tourists. Kamuyvaka waterfall falls directly into the sea. Kamuivakka in Ainu means – the river of the gods. A 11-kilometer road through the forest is laid to the river, after which it is necessary to walk along the bottom of the gray river for half an hour to a hot waterfall. And the closer to the waterfall, the water becomes warmer. They say. The upper hottest waterfall is prohibited for visiting due to stones falling from it. Walking on the river is also frightened by all Japanese guides – to easily slip, scratch, the wound will hurt from sulfur, but there is no ambulance and cellular communication.
