日本極北之旅 Vlog.2 利尻島 ！ 味樂拉麵｜夕日丘展望台｜姬沼｜利尻島鄉土資料館｜白色戀人之丘｜龍神神社｜寢熊之岩｜稚內-利尻島渡輪開箱｜Island Inn 房間、早餐開箱

日本極北之旅 Vlog.2 利尻島 ！ 味樂拉麵｜夕日丘展望台｜姬沼｜利尻島鄉土資料館｜白色戀人之丘｜龍神神社｜寢熊之岩｜稚內-利尻島渡輪開箱｜Island Inn 房間、早餐開箱

Good morning, Wakkanai! Today we’re heading to Rishiri Island, one of Japan’s northernmost twin islands. We left our large luggage at the hotel in Wakkanai and are traveling light for an overnight stay on Rishiri Island. The ferry terminal is close to our hotel—just a short walk away. You can buy tickets at the counter or use the nearby ticket machine. The cheapest one-way ferry ticket to Rishiri Island is 3,590 yen per person. All set—ticket purchased! Folded bicycles must be properly packed. Special bicycles require an additional fee. This is how small passenger cars board the ferry. Today’s wave height, temperature, and wind direction— as well as the ferry schedules to Rishiri and Rebun. There’s a commemorative stamp here in the ferry terminal building. A seal and a hibiscus flower. The boarding gate is on the second floor. Let’s go—on to the next part of our trip. The ferry itself also has its own commemorative stamp. There’s so much ink! No one was using it—only me. 😆 Departure! Heading to Rishiri Island. The ride takes about 100 minutes. It’s longer than I expected. It’s become all cool and refreshing! 😆 We can see the shores of Rishiri Island now. Everyone came out to enjoy the view. Welcome to Rishiri Island! Watching the ferry slowly dock is surprisingly relaxing. Docked! The Rishiri Island ferry terminal also has lots of commemorative stamps. This is Rishiri Island. This is also Rishiri Island—Shiroi Koibito Hill. And what’s this one? It’s the island we saw just before landing from the ferry. There’s a small souvenir shop here. They sell items unique to Rishiri Island. Keychains, phone charms, stickers— This keychain shows information and locations of attractions on Rishiri Island. Amazing! I’m buying one. This phone charm features the locally unique Rishiri poppy (so beautiful!). They also have many items with great craftsmanship. So many things I want to buy! Already in full-on shopping mode this early in the morning. At the end of July, Wakkanai has the lowest average temperature in all of Japan. The overall feeling is just like spring. There are very few bus services on the island. Public transportation isn’t convenient, so we also chose to rent a car to explore Rishiri Island. We picked up our car right in front of the ferry terminal and started our island trip. Our first stop is a famous restaurant on the island. It’s a Michelin restaurant that only opens for 2.5 hours at lunchtime. So you must come early and queue to register, otherwise you won’t get to eat. After registering, you can wander around nearby. There are many quaint, local shops around here. This café, “I Love Rishiri Coffee,” is really beautiful inside. It’s filled with vintage wooden structures and old furniture. It’s charming enough to make your heart flutter! The corridor beside it is full of antique furniture—so stunning! New Year cards—so beautiful. An old coal-heated iron! An ashtray. Lots and lots of old wooden cabinets! We spent quite a long time wandering around here! When we returned to Miraku, the entrance was already packed with people. If you don’t come early to register, you probably won’t get to eat even if you line up later. Their most famous dish is the soy sauce ramen made with kelp broth. Will it get foamy? Nope! It’s juice! Huh!? I was totally prepared for it. I was ready for the foam! (Being silly… I thought it was beer 😆) The first dish to arrive was the scallop curry. Steaming hot! And incredibly fragrant. Wow! Scallops! It’s my first time seeing curry served with scallops. Oh! It’s so good~ Can we add extra scallops? Look! Scallops! Mm… delicious. The scallops are so tasty. The signature soy sauce ramen is here! Cheers. It comes with two big slices of chashu. It’s steaming hot right as it arrives! It’s actually pretty good. Honestly, I didn’t have high expectations at first. Mm… tasty. The ramen noodles made from Hokkaido wheat are so chewy! Really good~ But the most impressive part is the broth. A light soy sauce flavor with a very distinct kelp sea flavor. We also ordered the three-color gyoza. The soup inside is very plentiful. Their chili oil is really spicy! 😆 Tasty. But the gyoza filling is a bit on the light side. Next is the green dumpling. Chives? Honestly, I can’t really tell. The red one—could it be kimchi? I can’t tell 😆 Maybe it’s chili skin? It comes to about 1,500 yen per person. Full and ready to begin our island tour. Our first stop is the Sunset Hill Observatory at the northernmost point. This small coastal hill is the best place on Rishiri Island to watch the sunset. But since we’re touring Rishiri Island clockwise, we’re starting here first. You have to walk a bit to reach the cliffside. Halfway up, you can see Pommoshiri Island, which looks like a hat. Wearing a hat. Pommoshiri Island (Ponmoshiri) means “small island” in the Ainu language. Far ahead, you can see a wide, beautiful grassy area at the base of Mount Rishiri. Right at the foot of the mountain. I wonder if locals use this as a ski area in winter. After a long uphill walk, we finally arrived… exhausted 💦 Ah! So tired! The water is so clear. Even though we can’t see the sunset at this time, the view from up high is still beautiful. The weather isn’t good today, so we can’t see the famous Rishiri Fuji. It’s the mountain behind us, right? Yes! The one that’s missing—covered by clouds. We can see Japan’s northernmost island, Rebun, in the distance. Next, we’re heading to one of Rishiri Island’s most famous spots—Lake Hime. Here we are! You need to walk a bit from the entrance to reach the lake. My intuition says this place must be gorgeous in autumn! What it’s most famous for is that on clear days, you can see a perfect reflection of Mount Rishiri on the lake’s surface. Therefore, it’s also known as the “Reverse Rishiri Fuji.” Unfortunately, the weather today is really not good. Although the lighting at Himenuma isn’t great today, it’s still a very peaceful and pleasant place. There’s also a boardwalk around the lake that you can walk around. In the primeval forest environment, you can find many flowers, birds, and butterflies. Strolling through it is really refreshing and relaxing. After walking around, we’re back to where we started. Leaving Himenuma, we continue our clockwise trip around Rishiri Island. Our next destination is the Rishiri Island Local History Museum located in the southeast. This museum was converted from a building over 100 years old — the former Oniwaki Village Office. It has been remodeled into a museum. Inside, it exhibits Rishiri Island’s natural environment and modern culture. Right after entering, we spotted an enormous seal specimen. The little seal specimen looks so life-like! Its eyes are so full of life! Super super huge. Of course, they also have a stamp here — can’t miss that. Hehe~ so cute~ Local History Museum Butterflies on Rishiri Island. Displays of the plants and animals of Rishiri Island, made using specimens. There are also many tools and equipment used by local residents in modern times. Lots of antique utensils. An old-style telephone, perhaps? A small dining table. Samurai armor. Eh! This one… is completely rusted. This is an old bowl. The second-generation lion head for the Nanpitsu Lion Dance. So cute. The first-generation lion head has a simpler design, kind of silly-cute. An old black-and-white TV. If this pendulum clock isn’t broken, it should still work fine. A sewing machine — my family used to have one, but this one looks much more high-end. This room displays information about Rishiri Island’s fishing industry. In earlier years, the locals lived off fishing, so fishing tools were very well developed. There are so many different kinds of tools. Models of different fishing boats from early times. The port used to be full of fishing boats, but now there are only a few. A model showing what the fishing port looked like in the old days. There’s also a very well-made model of a fisherman’s home interior! So cute! The beds even have upper and lower bunks! It looks like a big volcano?! Oh~ right. It’s just like Sakurajima, isn’t it? Yes. But Sakurajima is connected to the mainland, while this one isn’t. From Himenuma, we went this way… *boop boop boop boop* And ended up over here. Eh!? We haven’t even gone halfway around yet! Yeah. Okay, moving on to the next spot. Oshidomari Swamp is located on the southeast side of Rishiri Island and is the largest lake on the island. This is also another spot where you can see the “Reverse Rishiri Fuji” reflection. And it’s also a popular bird-watching spot on the island. Many waterbirds gather here. Unfortunately, we can’t see the reflection of Rishiri Island today either. There’s another famous landmark near here. Drive up the nearby hill, and you’ll arrive at the origin of the mountain design that appears on the logo of the famous Hokkaido cookie “Shiroi Koibito.” This mountain? Yes, yes. This mountain, yes! And then— And then— it’s inside the clouds 🤣… haha, damn it. No—it’s actually brighter over there! This side has dark clouds—over there is brighter. Since we’re already here, we still have to take some photos. Mount Rishiri is completely swallowed by the clouds. Next time, maybe we should come in winter. Maybe then we can see the snowy Mount Rishiri like in the logo. On the road, we found a small seaside shrine. So we stopped the car to have a look. This is a shrine standing on an isolated coastal rock. The Ryujin Shrine on “Ryujin Rock.” They even built a special bridge that leads to Ryujin Rock. Let’s go make an offering. There’s also a “Sleeping Bear Rock” nearby. From the signboard, look in this direction and you’ll see it. Seeing it in person, it really does look like a bear. But in the photo, it doesn’t look that much like one… A seagull on the bear’s back 😆 Everyone puts a one-yen coin here! Interesting. This wave-cut rock is covered with coins. And there’s another strange rock formation right next to it. This is the “Human Face Rock.” That one looks like an old man wearing a headband. At the very end of the day, we found that Mount Rishiri had finally peeked out. Quick! Take a picture to commemorate it. So happy. It’s almost dusk. There are so many seagulls in the sky around this area. We finally circled the entire island and returned to Sunset Hill Observatory. Let’s go see the most beautiful sunset on the island. Mount Rishiri is becoming clearer and clearer. With this, our Rishiri Island trip feels complete. Hang in there! Just a bit more walking to the observatory. Next, we’ll just relax and enjoy this hard-earned sunset view. In just a moment, Mount Rishiri hid again. With the blue backdrop of the sunset, we headed to our accommodation for the night. This one is Island Inn, located on the west side of Rishiri Island. It’s a hot spring hotel with a large public bath. There are rental bicycles placed at the entrance. Let’s take a look at the room together. Oh~ it feels a bit like going back to grandma’s house~ It really does! 😆😆😆 Granny-style bedding. Teacups under the table. A mirror. Hey! Don’t randomly turn off my lights! A refrigerator. A small TV. There’s even a capsule coffee machine in the tea area! Fancy~ The bathroom and toilet. A bathtub and a bidet toilet. The sink is outside the bathroom. The four-person room is quite spacious. We didn’t buy dinner—so tonight, we’re eating instant noodles. Good morning, Rishiri Island. Today’s weather is super nice, and Mount Rishiri came out to greet us. Let’s go have breakfast. In summer, Hokkaido gets bright at 4 a.m.… so early. Breakfast at this hotel is pretty good. Let’s take a look. Various juices and milk. I like apple juice. The dessert and salad section. Floating tomatoes 😆 and floating cucumbers 😆. Several types of salad dressing. There’s a special sea urchin rice. Wow—sea urchin! Sea urchin rice. There’s also sea urchin porridge. My favorite asparagus—this is quite rare. Carrots… Edamame and winter melon. Egg stir-fried with salted kelp. Chewy fish sausage. Bacon and corn soup. Ezo venison curry and Russian stew. Side dish area. All-you-can-eat sweet shrimp and salmon roe. One of my favorites! How could I miss it? Hot-spring egg and natto. Small dishes and pickles for rice. Various side dishes. Bread and jam. Coffee and tea. Miso soup. This is pretty unique—there’s even white wine for breakfast. There’s also honey, crackers, cheese, and nuts. Scooping another bowl of rice to make a seafood bowl later. Hehe. A happy breakfast. Very plentiful. Let’s eat—cheers! Starting to assemble my own seafood bowl: salmon roe, pollock roe, soy-marinated squid. Sweet shrimp with a little wasabi. And finally, seaweed~ Ta-da! Aping’s special seafood bowl. The seafood is very fresh—really delicious. Finished in no time. Asparagus is usually too expensive to buy, so I enjoyed it to the fullest here. Adding a hot-spring egg to the sea urchin rice. This breakfast really made me happy~ Time to check out~ While eating, I noticed Rishiri poppies outside the window. I can’t believe I got to see this flower that only grows on Rishiri Island. And they were in full bloom. The little round clusters beside them were so cute. Before leaving, we visited “Kutsugata Cape Park” near the hotel. The weather is so nice—too bad we have to leave today. Next, we head to the ferry terminal to return the car. After returning the car smoothly, we bought ferry tickets and boarded the ship back to Wakkanai. Today’s ferry looks newer than yesterday’s. I really like the Japanese-style tatami area on the ferry. You can lie down here to rest and play with your phone 😆. After putting down our luggage, we went to check out the ferry’s facilities. Passenger activity areas are mainly on these two floors. There is a second-class seating area in the middle of the upper deck. There are many seats, but everyone is downstairs in the tatami area. So there aren’t many people here. At the front, there are first-class “Japanese-style rooms” and the “scenic seating area.” You need a first-class ticket to enter. Nobody bought first-class tickets today, so the rooms were empty. These are the second-class side-view seats on the ferry. You can see the scenery outside. There’s also a seating area with tables next to it. You can work or eat here. The restroom—the color is very noticeable. There’s also a designated space for large luggage. And there are several storage areas. Vending machines. A microwave, hot water dispenser, and sink. There’s even a children’s playroom. It’s covered with protective mats inside. Pets also have their own separate resting room. We’re about to depart. Let’s go check out the back of the ferry. There’s also an outdoor seating area at the stern. The weather is so nice today—let’s walk around the ferry. It feels great to enjoy the sea breeze on the deck! The wind is so strong! My hair is blowing like crazy. It’s also about a 100-minute ride back to Wakkanai Port. There’s a seal on top of the cabinet! After getting off the ferry, we’re going to visit the places in Wakkanai that we didn’t get to last time. Then we’ll stop by the roadside stations along the way and head toward Asahikawa.