Vanlife Japan | Hokkaido Camper Van Trip Day 6–7 | Abashiri to Shiretoko National Park

Vanlife Japan | Hokkaido Camper Van Trip Day 6–7 | Abashiri to Shiretoko National Park

So last night after enjoying the nice onen, we ended up here at Abashidi Minoeki. A little bit crowded, some vehicles here, truckers, but nice restaurant. So let’s see what we uh end up doing today. All right. So today we’re going to the Abashidi Prism Museum. Right. Unfortunately, there at the Abashidi Prism Museum, you cannot take video, but you can take as many pictures as you want. Uh hopefully you enjoy these pictures. Hey. Hey. Hey. Yeah. After Abashidi uh prison, we came on over to the Os I can’t pronounce it. Drift ice museum. If it’s anything like yesterday’s, it’s going to be cold. Oh, yesterday it was -20. Today is -15. How are we supposed to spin this towel around for what? So now the it’s no longer -20. It’s -15 the way you treat me. Huh? Little bit. No. Little bit colder. This is the new 20 is much colder than 15. Knuckle. See? Okay. My brain was frozen. So, knuckle. Knuckle. I I am not sure if I appreciate that. Knuckle. This is actually our first michinoi stop for the day. Huh. This almost three. We’ve been busy doing the other stops. See a very small bird found only in Hokkaid though. The bird is so cute that is called a snow fairy. Only in Hokkaid though. It’s like now all the vegetation changed quite a bit. This here was a Shirtoco Pass, right? Yeah. There you go. Scenic road five. Oink oink falls. Made a quick stop. I think so. A lot of people in their RVs already setting up. After a while, some of these RVs look familiar. I think we’ve been like following each other. Well, we have been following each other, right? like the guy last night. He was next to us two days in a row. So, it looks like we’re going to be spending the night right here. And tomorrow we’re going to walk around the Shiatco uh area and we haven’t decided how long which track you’re going to we are going to do, but there’s multiple routes that you can take. The longest is like 3 hours long and then there’s different times of the year where you need a guide. But dur this time of the year looks like we do not need a guide. So still more to follow. We still need to figure that out. But seems like there’s ample parking. Really beautiful around here. We’re over there. H big trucks over here. So a little bit far away from us which is good. Oh, looks like this guy had got it figured out over there in the gravel. But still not that far from the restroom over here. Yeah, I think we’re going to find an onen right now and call it a day. at Shiraat Tokco National Park. I had some audio problems. U fortunately I did not turn on the mic. So uh hopefully you get to enjoy as we walk around this uh beautiful UNESCO World Heritage site. There are different lakes called the Shir Tokco five lakes. Uh there’s a beautiful uh boardwalk that extends all the way through. There’s different options uh different routes that you can take. You could take a shorter uh route which is pretty much on the boardwalk or you can uh do the whole thing the whole trek when you walk around the five lakes is really beautiful. Uh the the hike throughout the lakes is not bad at all. So I’d recommend doing doing the whole thing if you can. We are in Rauu uh Rauu Minoki after walking around and we’re just going to keep on driving. Now we’re heading back down south on the the uh east coast of Japan. And we haven’t really decided what we’re going to do. If we’re going to uh kind of cut through inland or keep on going down the ocean, the coast, I’m not sure. We’ll figure it out today. So, arriving to Odai doinoi. We are on the east coast now, right? And we have not decided where we going, if we’re going to go inland or continue going down. We’ll figure that out here in a second. So, we are heading inland now. We’re going to spend probably about 7 days bouncing around. Look at all that corn. So, the convenience store of choice in Hokkaido is Seikko Mart. They’re everywhere. Uh, and then we have also discovered that it is very hard to dispose of your garbage around here. So, but if you bring in the small bundle, you can put it in here. Then, normally within the shop, you can find the place to put it. Yeah, like quite a few choices. They must have just restocked, huh? $1. Yeah, less than a dollar. to the street. Yes. Less than a dollar like 90 cents or something like that. Yeah. It’s really cheap. Oh. Oh. And but and they’re not even reduced, right? It’s not like the time of the day to be reduced. Well, they never do it. I have to meet you at the conveni. Several camper cars. Wow, that’s large. Whoa. That’s a pretty place. I wonder what’s over there. There’s restrooms on that way. There’s Wi-Fi. What do you think? When I was looking, I didn’t see toilet this way. See, it’s nothing here. So, the Michinoi was quite crowded and then across the street there was like an overflow parking, but the toilet was not close to it. And then we started looking around and then we saw uh at a distance these camper vans parked and then we realized that there’s this really cool park right here. Check this out. Swiggo Park. And then they have toilets right there. I have not looked at them yet, but I think they’re going to be clean. So, this is where we’re going to stay the night. I believe there already quite a few people set up. It’s a really beautiful park. So, and I think here is a little bit more laid-back environment because it’s not a minoi and again yi have uh people here and everyone has camper vans. It’s not truckers or anything like that. So, I think this is going to be a good spot for tonight. Wow, this park is actually really really nice. And uh there in the parking lot, really cool vibe. Everyone that’s there, a little bit more relaxed environment. Whole lot more relaxed than the Minoeki, quite frankly. I think this is the second time that we have stayed at a park and somewhat last minute and uh I think that’s a not a bad option at all. It’s something we definitely need to bird watching pavilion. That’s something that we definitely need to explore more. Um because usually they they do have staff that they clean the the restrooms and they’re clean as well. Oh, it’s the ducks. A, that’s so cool. And all of this was straight up impromptu, not knowing where we’re going to stay, what we’re going to do for the day. Wow. Looks like the park extends all the way out that way. We’re parked way over there. The Michaki is out that way. Probably going to cross this bridge, too. Hopefully you enjoyed this video of our twoe trip throughout Hokkaido. This is day six and seven. We still have another week to go. We’re still going to visit all kinds of cool places until we head on towards Sapoorto for the RV show and then we catch the ferry back to mainland. All right, thanks a lot. Thanks for tuning in and have a great day. Heat. Heat.

Day 6 and 7 of our 14-day Hokkaido camper van journey take us from Abashiri to the wild Shiretoko Peninsula.

We started with a deep dive into history at the Abashiri Prison Museum, learning about how convict labor built much of Hokkaido’s early infrastructure. Then we headed to the Okhotsk Ryu-hyo Museum to experience the famous drift ice up close and enjoy the observatory views of Mt. Tento.
Driving east, we explored several Michi no Eki stops – Hanayaka Tōbetsu (local potatoes & dairy), Shari (gateway to Shiretoko), and Utoro/Shiretoko City Etuku (fresh seafood + boat tour hub).
On Day 7, the highlight was Shiretoko National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage Site with rugged cliffs, waterfalls, and even bear sightings. We passed Oshinkoshin Falls, enjoyed the scenery of the Shiretoko Five Lakes, and ended our drive at Michi no Eki Shiretoko Rausu, famous for kelp and seafood.

Instead of staying at the crowded Mashu Onsen roadside station, we found a peaceful overnight at Suigo Koen, with clean restrooms and a calm atmosphere – the perfect camper stop.

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