East Hokkaido · NotsukeNo.901★★Open in map →
Notsuke Peninsula
— The Todowara dead forest on an Okhotsk sand spit
A hook of sand curving off the coast of eastern Hokkaido, with a forest of dead fir standing on it where the ground went salt. The sea built the spit and the sea is taking it back.
- FromNakashibetsu Airport
- Half a dayHire car, no bus route
- Get off atOdaito harbour (sightseeing boat, May–Oct)
- From there
- Notsuke Peninsula
The sweet spot
Notsuke is signposted, protected under an international wetland convention, and photographed constantly. It stays quiet because there is no way in without a vehicle. No railway comes near, no scheduled bus runs down the spit, and the drive from the nearest airport is most of an hour. Most people travelling eastern Hokkaido are aiming at Shiretoko instead.
Where it is
102 more notes in Hokkaido · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Narawaraa stand of dead oak in the shallows beside the road, seen from the car park only
- Notsuke Peninsula Nature Centerdisplays on the upper floor, a shop and a dining room on the ground floor
- The track to Todowaraabout 1.3 km out to the dead forest, on foot or by seasonal tractor bus
- Todowarafir trunks left standing in salt ground, giving way from the seaward side
- Notsuke-saki lighthouse and the flower flatsthe tip end of the spit, with meadow you look at rather than walk into
How to actually get there
- Nakashibetsu Airport → the peninsula by hire car.
- Stop at the Narawara car park on the way in.
- Nature centre exhibits first, then out to Todowara on foot or by tractor bus.
- On to the lighthouse end of the spit before turning back.
- Fly to Nakashibetsu, then drive
- Nakashibetsu Airport is the practical gateway. Both the nature centre's own access page and Hokkaido's official listing put the drive at about fifty minutes. From Kushiro it is a far longer run. There is no train and no scheduled bus down the spit, so this is a hire car, a taxi, or a guided tour — the centre runs its own.
- Off the spit before dark
- One road on, one road off, and it is unlit for its whole length. Sika deer gather here and stand in it. Build the return leg for daylight. If you have come on a tour, the operator sets that timing rather than you.
About the place
Between the Shiretoko and Nemuro peninsulas, a hook of sand curves out into the Okhotsk Sea and folds back on itself, enclosing a shallow bay. It runs about twenty-six kilometres, which makes it the longest sand spit in Japan. Currents built it grain by grain and the same water is taking it apart: the ground is going down roughly one and a half centimetres a year, and salt now reaches the roots of trees that grew here when it was dry. The nature centre stands where the spit narrows, and everything on the peninsula gets measured from its car park.
How to enjoy it
The tractor bus runs through the warm half of the year and takes the length out of the walk to the dead forest, which counts for a lot when the wind is up — there is nothing on the spit to shelter behind. Late spring into summer puts hamanasu roses and glasswort along the track, and seals haul out in the bay. In winter the bay freezes and the guided walks go out onto the ice, which is a different visit altogether.
Background & history
This is not thin ground historically. Pit dwellings of the Satsumon period have been dug at Onnikuru, near the middle of the spit, and mammoth remains have come up from the seabed offshore more than once. From the late Edo period into early Meiji this was the crossing point for boats to Kunashir and the Kurils, and the traffic left a story behind it: a port town called Kiraku, with samurai houses and a pleasure quarter, said to have vanished. No old map or document confirms it ever existed. The peninsula keeps the tale anyway.
Before you go
- Cash
- The centre's own site and Hokkaido's official listing both show admission as free, with 50 spaces of car parking. The shop, the dining room and the tractor bus are paid, and the guided tours are booked ahead. Bring cash; this is not card country.
- Good to know
- The centre publishes hours of 9:00 to 17:00 from April to September and 9:00 to 16:00 from October to March, closing from 30 December to 5 January. The tractor bus is seasonal. Weather shuts things here that would stay open elsewhere — wind off the Okhotsk crosses the whole spit unobstructed.
- Another way
- From late spring to autumn a sightseeing boat crosses the bay from Odaito and lands on the Todowara side, which skips the road entirely and turns the approach into a water crossing; Betsukai's own tourism pages carry it. Winter is the other alternative — when the bay freezes, guided walks go out onto the ice from the centre.
- After you get off
- Odaito is the last settlement before the spit, on Route 244, and the centre's access page puts it about thirty minutes further by road. Nothing about that stretch is walkable. Odaito is also where the sightseeing boat leaves from, and where to fill the tank and buy whatever you forgot.
Nearby notes
Distances are straight lines on the map, not travel times.