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  • Day 31

    Rishiri Island

    September 22, 2017 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Since the weather's been so great, why not hit the water and check out one of the outlying islands? The Heartland Ferry company runs ferries 3 times a day to Rishiri and Rebun islands. Although I could take the car, it is a prohibitively expensive round trip to do that so the car has the day off. As it is, its around 50 AUD for the return trip to Rishiri island as a passenger.

    It's an early start as I want to take the first ferry of the day at 7:15. I have the choice of 1st class, 2nd class and no class (economy). Naturally I choose the last option as comfort and luxury are wasted on me (and I'm also tight btw).

    Like all ferry trips, there's interesting views of the port of departure, interesting views of the port of arrival and a lot of boredom in between. I look in vain for whales, dolphins, really just anything in the water but not much is happening. Just the odd whiff of tobacco from the smoking section 😝

    We arrive at Odishomari ferry terminal a bit after 9. The weather looks decent on the island, it might be a good hiking day. The ferry I was on continues on to Rebun Island but that's too far afield for me today.

    Rishiri island is around 60 km in circumference. Mt Rishiri sits seething in the middle of the island, an active volcano around 1700 metres high. It dominates all views of the island interior, and is visible from much of the North Hokkaido coastline.

    I decide to take the Soya bus to Kushtugata, which is 12-13 km from the ferry terminal. Owing to my inexperience with Japanese buses (what with having a car and all) a young lady has to help me out paying the fare (750 yen or just under 9 AUD) when I exit the bus. My idea is to walk back to the ferry terminal along the coastline and catch the 2:35 pm ferry back to Wakkanai.

    As it turns out, 13 km is a long way. The day is a bit warmer than I would like, not too much sea breeze coming through so I eat my lunch on some rocks at the beach (cue 4th photo). I'm able to stretch out and rest in the cool air for a few minutes, but unfortunately I still have over 7 km to walk and time is getting shorter.

    Eventually I make it back to the ferry terminal. Plenty of time up my sleeve. The ferry pulls in around 2:10 and what seems to be a thousand people disembark. Yet there's a queue of around 40 people standing by to get on. Why do this, everyone will get a seat! What's worse is that I'm IN the queue, regretting my decision as my tired feet yammer for a break.

    Fortunately I'm able to rest up in the 105 minutes or so it takes to return to Wakkanai. There are fewer people on board than when I came over, at least in economy. Still are some smokers doggedly pursuing their dreams of an early death 😜

    We disembark from Wakkanai and go our separate ways. A few people are in front of me as we walk back into the town. I hear the man in front of me exclaim, then I see what he sees: there's a STAG munching on vegetation in a car park. It's very close to the footpath we're on, so a little disconcerting 😯
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