Photo Tour of Japan | Shiretoko Five Lakes

Jan 22 | Evan | No Comments |

In September and October of 2013, Japan Photo Guide and PhotoSafari.ru worked together to prepare a tour for photographers from Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania and of course myself from USA. Including myself, we had 15 photographers touring Japan from Tokyo to Hokkaido to Kyoto. After spending a few days in Tokyo, our first stop on our trip to Japan was up to the northern island of Hokkaido, Shiretoko Five Lakes, which is part of Shiretoko National Park. Our group took a flight from Tokyo to Memanbetsu and then bus to Utoro, a small town just outside of Shiretoko National Park on the Shiretoko Peninsula. We spent a few days at the Shiretoko Grand Hotel in Utoro and overall I was very pleased with the hotel. Staff was friendly and helpful, rooms were comfortable and convenient and food was good. No complaints at all for the hotel we stayed in for our base for Shiretoko National Park…

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The weather on the other hand, I had a few complaints! During our first few days, it was mostly rainy and dreary or cloudy. That being said, we still had a few nice moments of light to create some great landscapes of the Shiretoko area. In this post I am sharing photos of Shiretoko Five lakes. The first lake can always be accessed via a raised walkway no matter when you visit, but other lakes have some restrictions, depending mostly on bear sightings and the season. That is why, before visiting Shiretoko Goko, it is important that you read their information site as depending on the season, there are different procedures for visiting. For us, we had to attend a short information session before entering the walkway around most of the lakes.

Weather permitting, each lake provides views of Shiretoko Mountain Range. I have been here twice, once in the summer when ground path was closed due to bear sighting and once in early October where the ground path around the lakes were open to walk. Unfortunately, the weather was nicer when the ground path was closed, so I only got to visit the first lake that summer day.