I have inserted the map to show where Nakashibetsu is situated, on the eastern side of Hokkaido near the Kuril Islands. The drive and train ride from Sapporo takes a whole day; the flight only 40 minutes.
During my visits, I drive around Nakashibetsu to sight see as well as enjoy the wonderful seafood. The roads are not crowded with traffic and the drivers are polite and obey the rules. The only danger is that the beautiful scenery tempts my eyes away from the road!
This month, I did a 20-minute drive to the small seaside town of Shibetsu to see the salmon hatchery. Hokkaido is full of salmon rivers and salmon fishing is a major industry. The hatchery catches salmon returning to lay their eggs, fertilizes the eggs with sperm taken from male fish, and releases the fingerling to the nearby Shibetsu River. These fingerling, in due course, return to the hatchery.
View of the salmon hatchery
We later drove towards the town of Nemuro along the lovely seaside. The land is marshy here, is preserved, and full of wildflowers. The landscape seen at the background of the above photo is one of the Kuril Islands, which now belongs to Russia. And thereby hangs a tale.
The Kuril Islands (the Japanese call them the Northern Territories) were captured by the Soviet army during World War II from Japan and not returned. This is a sore point with the Japanese, especially those living on east Hokkaido. They erect large billboards along the road asking for the return of the "occupied islands". Strangely, these signs are in English and Japanese, not in Russian. But, Russian fisherman do visit these parts, and the large signboard I am standing next to has information in Japanese, English, and Russian.
We learned about a jazz concert by one of Japan's foremost saxophonists, Sadao Watanabe, and returned a few days later to Shibetsu to attend the performance. The concert would have been enjoyable without the loud, manic drumming of the Senegalese drummer in the Quintet!
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