This past weekend I went with a few JETs on a roadtrip up to a place called Wakkanai, which means "I don't understand" in Japanese. It also happens to be the northern-most city in Japan. There are a pair of islands, Rishiri and Rebun, just off the western tip of of the peninsula that are famous for sightseeing. Most people don't even go to Wakkanai, they only go there to take the ferry to the islands, which is basically what we did. Rishiri island is essentially an island consisting entirely of a volcano mountain. Most people go there to do the intense 10 hour hike to the top, which is what we intended to do in the first place! We had planned this trip to Wakkanai almost exclusively to climb Rishiri-dake but in the week leading up to the trip, the peak of the mountain got over four feet of snow! We weren't prepared to do the hike in the snow so we decided to go to the other island instead - Rebun. Rebun island isn't as big or tall as Rishiri but there are a lot of hiking trails there to do.

The five of us - Me, Callie, Justin (Team Marimo!), Chris (a JET from Shiritaki) and Rob (a JET from Oumu) - drove up to Wakkanai on Friday night after work and got there a little past 11:00pm. It was pissing rain and dark out the so it took us a bit longer than we thought. We were staying at JET's house that lives in Wakkanai who wasn't even in town for the weekend, but still graciously let us use his place anyways! He just gave me a map to his place, told me where he left the key and told us to use it responsibly. Once we got there we had to get up early the next morning to catch the 6:50am ferry to Rebun so we went to bed right away.

We decided to get up at 6 o'clock because we thought it would give us plenty of time to catch the ferry. We got up, got ready and were out of there in twenty minutes. Still pleenty of time! We decided to make a stop at Seicomart (a convenience store) to pick up some breakfast for the trip. We took about ten minutes and then it was time to head off to the ferry terminal which (according to our map) was a five minute drive away. We were still good for time. Once we got to the spot on the map we looked around... and didn't see any ferry terminal! We drove around for a few minutes before seeing a huge ferry at the dock. Phew! We then drove around looking for a (legal) place to park. There was ten minutes to go so we pulled into a large, empty gravel lot right beside the ferry and ran towards it. There was a steep staircase that lead to a plank-like thing sticking out from the side of the ferry and seemed to be the only way to get on. Since I had gotten there first I headed up the staircase onto the ferry... but no one was on board! Something was eerie. I called out a few times and then looked around... and that's when I realized the boat was still tied to the dock! This was definitely not the right ferry! Five minutes to go. Chris and Justin were still on the ground so they ran around the dock and saw another ferry on the next pier over. One look at it and we could tell that it was the one we wanted to be on... it was getting ready to leave! We raced back to the car, jumped in and gunned it for the next pier. After a few traffic lights we got closer to the pier and finally saw the ferry terminal. We pulled into the parking lot, I opened the door and high-tailed it to the entrance. Two minutes to go! I ran to the counter and asked if we were too late. The lady behind the counter was surprised to see us and said, "Chotto matte kudasai" (Please wait a moment) before scurrying into the back room. It's only 6:49am and teeccchnically we're not quite late yet. She comes back out with a man who I presume to be their manager or someone important.. and tells us that it's ok! As I'm paying for our tickets, the man is on his walkie-talkie talking to someone who I assumed was on the ferry telling them to wait. I couldn't hear him but I knew he was saying something along the lines of, "There are five late gaijin, just wait a second." The other four had already ran ahead of me so once the tickets were ready, the lady came out from behind the counter with the tickets, handed them to me and personally showed me the way to the ferry. I ran out onto the dock and saw the other four already up the gangplank of the ferry so I ran towards it, quickly showed my ticket to the man there waiting for us and then I was up beside them. Right as I got on, I looked back and they had already started raising the gangplank. I looked at my watch - 6:52am. Ok, so we were a little late, but we had made it!

After that intense little episode we went above, found some seats, sat back and relaxed for the 1 hour and 45 minute trip. I got a map of Rebun from the info desk on the ferry so after a bit of deciding we figured out a plan of action for the day. We would rent a few bicycles, bike to the trailhead of Rebun-dake and hike it. We were planning on taking the last ferry from Rebun back into Wakkanai so we had to make sure we could get everything done by then. Once we arrived we got off the ferry then went to look for the bicycle rental place. We found it just outside the ferry terminal but there was no one there to help us. We thought it was closed but we didn't figure out until later that you needed to call a number in the window for someone to come and meet us. Oh well! After walking around for a while trying to figure out a way to get to the trailhead (which was 8km away), we decided to say screw it and chose a different trail on the map instead. We walked 10 minutes into town and then another 15 minutes until we got to a trailhead. We weren't sure where it headed but we decided to follow it anyways!

We hiked around the island for 4-5 hours and saw many of the islands famous natural landmarks, including a big 190m tall rock that looks like a peach called Momo-iwa (which in English means.. you guessed it, Peach Rock). Tourist season had ended about a week earlier so the island wasn't packed with hikers like it normally is during the summer. We basically had the whole island to ourselves. The island itself is absolutely gorgeous with panorama views everywhere you looked. It's only 29km long by 8km wide so once we got to the top of one of the hills we had a view of the sea from three sides. It rained a bit in the morning when we started the hike but it cleared up around midday. We only managed to touch the southern part of the island but there's an eight-hour hike that spans the entire length of the island. We could see the mountain from Rebun and it looked absolutely amazing. It's dubbed Rishiri-fuji because it looks really similar to Mt. Fuji. The peak was hidden in clouds all day so we couldn't see the peak but it looks to be a pretty massive mountain.

We got back to the ferry terminal in time to have an hour lunch before taking the ferry back to Wakkanai. The amazing thing about Japanese ferries is that instead of seats, they have tatami flooring where you can lie down and sleep! We quickly took advantage of it and slept the entire way back. An exhausting day of hiking + the gentle rocking motion of the sea = out like a light. Once they called the five minutes to docking on the intercom we all woke up, groggy and red-eyed, and got off. We headed back to the place we were staying to drop off our stuff and then quickly headed to the local onsen in town. We lounged around there for about an hour and a half and then went out to eat okonomiyaki for supper at a restaurant. When we got there we were the only ones there but later on a group of Japanese people came in celebrating something. They had obviously been drinking before but they were really friendly to us when they found out we were all english teachers. One of the guys even bought us all drinks! We finished up there after hanging out for an hour and headed back. We were all still exhausted from the day so we all went to bed right away, crammed into one small tatami room. We even hung a blanket over the window to block out the light the next morning.

We didn't have much planned for the next day so we slept in until around 9 o'clock, almost 10 hours of sleep! Rob had gotten up earlier so he went out to buy a couple things for the JET who's place we were using. We got him some groceries (that he had written on his little whiteboard) and some beer as a thank-you. We packed up all of our stuff and then headed to the JR station for Callie to buy her ticket home. She was headed back from Wakkanai on the train instead of driving back with us. After that we made a quick stop at a department store to get some purikura done (always a must when travelling) then we drove to a place called Cape Soya, the northern-most point in all of Japan. There are a bunch of wind turbines installed all over northern Hokkaido - and for good reason. The wind was intense! When we got to the parking lot where the cape was I opened the door and it basically blew the door shut back at me. I was trying to put on my sweater but the wind kept whipping it away and there where whitecaps on the waves way out to sea. It had to have been at least 75 km/hr wind. We spent some time there taking some pictures and checking out the gift shop before heading back to Wakkanai. There really wasn't much to see or do at Cape Soya other than to say you've been to the northern-most point of Japan. We drove back into town to find a kaitenzushi we had heard of for lunch. After driving around a bit and finally managing to find the restaurant, it was closed! Instead we went to a placed called "Russian Restaurant" which served Russian food. Apparently there's a large Russian presence in northern Hokkaido because the Russian sailors dock at the port towns all the time. You can even take a ferry to the Russian island of Sakhalin from Wakkanai.. but I've heard it's really sketchy. After lunch we went to the "Wakkanai Dome" which isn't even a dome at all and is just a long, cement breakwater which the Lonely Planet crowned as the best reason to come to Wakkanai. Total dud.

We decided to call it a day after that since we had a long drive ahead of us. We dropped Callie off at the JR station (where she met her new friend, a pot-bellied pig) and then headed home at 4:00pm. I fell asleep on the way because I was exhausted (even though, strangely, I had slept in the night before and we didn't do too much that day) to Rob's place in Oumu where I had parked my car. I drove the rest of the way home and dropped off Chris and Justin before making my way home to get there at 10:00pm. It was a long - yet short - whirlwind weekend where we did a lot and was a ton of fun. Most people spend at least 3-4 days to explore Rebun and Rishiri but we explored Rebun in basically one day. I plan on coming back next spring when the snow melts to tackle Rishiri-dake - it's on my "To Do" list.

It seems like my list keeps getting bigger and bigger.. so much to do, not enough weekends!