Category: 旅 / Travel

Just after arriving Croatia, I encountered a thunderstorm on Walls of Dubrovnik and paid the entrance fee twice just within a few hours in the afternoon. However, the tragedy on the first day was not only the entrance fee, which costed me over 11,000 yen.

Although I avoided the peak season in August, Dubrovnik was crowded. I had difficulties making restaurant reservations on weekend nights, so I had to make a reservation at a Michelin-listed restaurant on the day of arrival, which was a weekday. While I elegantly enjoyed at the most fashionable and expensive restaurant of the entire trip, I received text message on WhatsApp.

It said that due to last-minute cancellation of other guests, the one-day tour to Bosnia and Herzegovina on the following day would be cancelled. It was already after 21:00.

I had visited Bosnia and Herzegovina on an one-day tour from Dubrovnik during my last visit to this region, the mosques in Bosnia and Herzegovina were so impressive that I was looking forward to revisiting them with recently purchased wide-angle lens. There were two mosques I wished to visit. One of them was in Mostar, a famous tourist town, and could be reached by ordinary buses. However, the other one was located where I could not imagine how I can visit.

I was already feeling gloomy as I paid the entrance fee for Walls of Dubrovnik twice before the dinner, but I felt even gloomier when I heard this. Besides, I ordered the tasting menu and wine pairings, which caused the dinner was rather hectic. I was explained everything on food and wine, but I was distracted. While having the dinner, I tried to find buses but I could not find one. However, I could not give up visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina after coming to Dubrovnik, the border was just ahead.

In the end, at around 21:30, I searched for a tour and found a web site that still accepting reservations for the next day. I was skeptical but I completed the reservation. I immediately received a WhatsApp message. It was the same tour company that had cancelled my initial reservation… Good Grief!

The itinerary of the tour was not much different from the cancelled one, but instead of visiting to a Christian pilgrimage site called Medjugorje, I would be going to see waterfalls. Also, the tour itinerary has shorter stay in Mostar, but I thought it was an unavoidable compromise.

I was picked-up early in the morning at 6:30. Apparently, the waterfalls were more popular than the pilgrimage site for tourists, the tour bus was nearly full. After leaving Croatia, we first visited to Kravica Waterfall. I did not expect much, but it was quite spectacular. The weather was still bad from yesterday, but this might be a positive effect that there were no swimmers. There were buoys set up to segregate the swimming area, which eventually showed up in the pictures, but I could have Adobe Lightroom’s AI to erase them later.

After spending an hour at the waterfall, the tour headed to a village called Pocitelj. The mosque here was wonderful and I wanted to revisit.

Despite it was planned to stay there only for 20 minutes, the bus arrived just before the worship time around noon. When I visit a mosque, I always like to see it from the same perspective as the worshippers. So if possible, I try to sit on the floor and look up inside the mosque. While I sat down on the floor after I took pictures, the imam started the service. I was not asked to leave, I remained to sit in the corner for a while. It was quite secular, with an old man smiling at me and a child walking around. Although it was a short time, it was interesting visit.

Last town of the tour was Mostar. As is common in this kind of tour, guests were taken to a restaurant. I had no high expectations, but a traditional local dish like tomato risotto was delicious. The beef soup I separately ordered was gold-color and also tasted good. It was about a tenth of the price of last night’s fancy restaurant, but twice as tasty.

I finished the meal quickly and went to an old mosque. I remembered the last time I was sitting in this mosque, I talked with the imam who happened to be there, and he said he was grateful to the respects I paid among other tourists roundly talked each other.

The visit at this time was during a heavy shower. The mosque was completely deserted despite this was one of the country’s most popular tourist places. Including the time for taking pictures, I was able to quietly observe the mosque for about 30 minutes. Moreover, I was able to climb the minaret, a spire attached to the mosque, for an extra fee. It is probably rare for a mosque to show this much to non-Moslems.

When I heard of tour cancellation the night before, I had a really sinking feeling. In the end, I was able to recover and fully enjoy the short visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It is important not to give up on anything. I usually do not reach such conclusion. Nevertheless, I can have such a positive attitude while traveling.

Last year, I visited to Monbetsu and Abashiri to see drift ice because I thought there were fewer travelers due to COVID-19 outbreak. In fact, hotels and airline tickets could be changed at last minute. After a quick change of plans just few days before departure, I got into the clear skies and I was able to enjoy the drift ice.

It is a human nature to wonder if there are any birds of this year in last year’s nests. I wanted to go back to see the drift ice again. Due to my own arrangement mistake, I had to reschedule first half of the trip from Kushiro to Kawayu Onsen. However, as expected, I was not able to change my schedule for Abashiri and Monbetsu during the peak season of this year. I had a pretty much fixed schedule, and all I could do was to hope that the weather would be cooperative.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast was cloudy during my stay. If heavy snow was expected, I would have considered returning to Tokyo early, but the forecast was not that bad. I had to leave the weather to the gods of Hokkaido.

From Kawayu Onsen, I took a tourist bus to Abashiri. It was sunny early in the morning, but as I headed toward Abashiri, it gradually became cloudy. I wondered if there is no birds of this year in last year’s nests after all.

With a reservation made in advance, I boarded an icebreaker boat in Abashiri despite the poor weather. Although the scenery was magnificent, it was a bit of lacking from a photographic point of view.

From Abashiri, I continued the bus to Monbetsu. The windows of the bus on winter roads were dirty and the scenery outside was dark and somber. I fell into a sleep on its long way.

When I woke up just before Monbetsu, the light outside the window was slightly brighter. It was hard to believe at first glance, I wondered if the weather was clearing up. Was the weather forecast wrong?

When I got off the bus at Monbetsu Port, it was perfectly clear. I took an evening icebreaker boat for the sunset cruise. Last year, it was partly cloudy on the sunset cruise, so I might say that this alone was worth the trip to Monbetsu again. It was wonderful.

In the evening, I enjoyed at a local sushi restaurant.

The forecast for the next morning was cloudy again. Since weather forecast is just a forecast, it can be wrong. However, it is unlikely to be wrong for two days in a row.

By the way, the room on that day was exactly the same room in the same hotel as last year. If such a miracle could happen, I wonder if there could be some birds of this year in last year’s nests.

I decided not to have excessive expectations and went to bed. Still, it is human nature to be anxious, I had a nightmare that it was cloudy when I woke up.

When my alarm went off a little after 4:00 a.m., the sky was clear in reality. It was unusually cold, but my heart was warm. I headed for the sunrise cruise.

Thanks to the gods of Hokkaido, there were indeed many birds of this year in last year’s nests.

In one afternoon of last year, I looked at 2023 calendar and discovered that if I took a Friday off in late February, I would have a long four-day weekend. At that time, foreign tourist demand to Japan was still low, and I wanted to go see the drift ice once again. I put aside my work for the day and started thinking about my schedule.

Since I have four days, I wished to participate in trekking around the Shiretoko Lakes during the severe winter season. After deciding on the schedule, I returned home early and completed my airline and hotel reservations. Because I made the arrangements a little too early, the Shiretoko trekking was not accepting reservations, I had to make its arrangement on a later day.

After that day, I was busy traveling. I went to the Maldives and got a bad sunburn, and then went to Kushiro on a whim. I forgot everything for the Shiretoko Lakes.

When I came to realize I had not made trekking reservation, it was already in January. Similar 4-day schedule seemed to come to everyone’s mind, and it was already impossible to make any trekking reservations at all. I checked several times to see if there were any cancellations, but it seemed to be impossible. It was a big mistake.

While I was in deep desperations, I found that the Kushiro Marshland Onnenai Visitor Center was offering rental snowshoes. I thought about it and recalled that the weather at Kushiro Marsh was not so good during my last visit in 2023. It would be good to revisit there.

I checked the flight schedule from Tokyo to Kushiro, and found that there were a few seats left, and the last room at a hotel in Kawayu Onsen, where I had to give up last time owing the JR Senmo Line was suspended due to an accident, was still available. In addition, initial onward air ticket from Tokyo to Memanbetsu, the gateway to Shiretoko, had been purchased at a fare that could be cancelled with a small fee. With all these conditions in place, I decided to give up Shiretoko visit and go to Kushiro instead. All has been fixed just about 10 days before departure.

I took a flight leaving Tokyo Haneda at around noon for Kushiro. The forecast for the first day was cloudy, so I did not have high expectations, but it was sunny when I arrived. Kushiro calls itself as one of the three best sunset cities in the world. I took a walk to Kushiro Port to watch the sunset.

The next morning, the weather was clear as predicted, and I took a bus from Kushiro Station to Kushiro Marsh. It was cloudy when we arrived at Onnenai, but it cleared up after a while. Finally, we were able to enjoy the winter scenery of Kushiro Marsh in the best weather.

It seemed that snowshoes were not necessary to walk along the wooden paths in the Marsh at that time of the year. Still, there was more snow than last December, so I could enjoy a different scenery. I encountered many deer. Contrary there were almost no human visitors, and I was able to enjoy the magnificent scenery in peace.

I returned to Kushiro Station by bus and took the JR Senmo Line to Kawayu Onsen. Local trains in Hokkaido are operated with only one or two diesel train cars. Nevertheless, it took a long time to get on and off the train due to the overflow of people into the narrow aisles. The train was delayed for about 30 minutes due to the congestion. Since the train ride is long in Hokkaido, the train should have one more car on occasional crowded days.

The weather did not stay fine for long, and it was cloudy when we got off at Kawayu Onsen station. I took a local bus to the onsen town center. It was a nice hotel with excellent hot spring water.

The next morning was forecast to be cloudy, but it was fine when I woke up. The bus to Abashiri would leave Kawayu Onsen around 10:30. I called a local cab company to visit Mt. Io-zan and back. The weather had been bad when I visited there a few years before, so I decided to give another try. The sulfur-yellow surface of the mountain was covered with a cloud of steam. It was a wild sight.

I had missed going to Kawayu Onsen twice in the past due to the weather, but this time, I managed going there because of my own mishandling of the arrangements. After so many trips I have made, I should have more control on making proper arrangements. However, as is often said, “all’s well that ends well.” As a result, I had a wonderful stay in Kushiro area.