Beyond the Abashiri drift ice cruise: the Prison Museum and more
The Aurora takes about an hour, and a winter day in Abashiri is a lot longer than that. The small city on the Okhotsk coast has a handful of museums worth the cold walk between doors and a lake ringed with hot-spring hotels. An hour or two to the east lies the Shiretoko Peninsula. The three Aurora tours cover different pieces of it.
Abashiri Prison Museum
Most Japanese visitors know Abashiri for its prison before its ice. The Abashiri Prison Museum is an open-air museum of the old prison's Meiji-era wooden buildings, moved to a hillside site outside the center and laid out much as they once stood. Several are designated Important Cultural Properties. The radial cell block, with wings spreading from a central watch post, is the one most people remember. Life-size figures of inmates and guards fill the cells and workshops, which feels a little eerie in snow.
The place owes part of its fame to the classic film series "Abashiri Prison", which made the name a byword in Japan for the far north. The real prison is a different site and still operates elsewhere in the town, so the museum is history and the jail is not. Inside you learn how prisoners were sent here to clear land and build roads across Hokkaido, often in brutal conditions. Allow at least an hour and a half, and dress for walking between unheated buildings.
The Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum on Mt Tento
Mt Tento is a low hill just outside the center, and the drift ice museum sits on top. Its best-known room is kept at about −15 °C (5 °F) and holds real drift ice brought in from the sea, so you can touch it even in a winter when the pack stays offshore. Tanks usually show clione, the small translucent sea snail known as the sea angel, which lives under the ice. The observation deck on the roof looks out over the Okhotsk coast, and on a clear day you can follow the white line of ice along the shore. What you see from the deck explains what that ice is and where it comes from.
Northern Peoples and the Okhotsk culture
Close by on the same hill, the Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples covers the cultures of the far north, from the Ainu of Hokkaido to peoples across the Arctic rim. Clothing and tools show how people lived with ice and cold for centuries. It is quieter than the Prison Museum and makes a good warm hour.
Down in town near the river mouth, the Moyoro Shell Mound marks a settlement of the Okhotsk culture, a seafaring people who lived along this coast long before the modern town. A small museum explains the finds. None of the three Aurora tours stops there, so you need a taxi or a free afternoon.
The ship and three museums in one day
JUN Travel's private day covers all three of the big museums on Mt Tento and the Aurora fare, from ~$2,082 for a group of up to six, with pickup at Abashiri hotels.
Notoro Cape and Lake Abashiri
Notoro Cape, a headland with a lighthouse northwest of town, is a favorite spot for watching the ice from land when it packs against the cliffs. In deep winter the road can be slow, so go with a driver who knows it.
Lake Abashiri, just south of the center, is ringed with hot-spring hotels. The H.I.S. two-day tour, from ~$401 per person, stays at either Hokuten no Oka Lake Abashiri Tsuruga Resort or Hotel Abashiriko So. Dinner is a buffet, and you cannot choose the room type. Tattoos, even sticker ones, are barred from the baths at both. Day 2 brings the Aurora and then lunch at the Prison Museum, so the town's best-known sight is on the itinerary.
East toward Shiretoko
The coast road east runs past Kitahama Station, a small wooden station right by the sea where the ice can come almost to the platform. Beyond it the road continues through Shari to Utoro on the Shiretoko Peninsula. Shiretoko became a World Heritage Site in 2005, and in winter its wild coast fills with ice. Oshinkoshin Falls drops close to the road near Utoro and can partly freeze in deep cold.
Club Tourism's two days, from ~$430 per person, follow this route. Day 1 brings the Mt Tento viewpoint for about 30 minutes and the drift ice touch experience in Shari, then a night at the Shiretoko Daiichi Hotel in Utoro. Day 2 visits Oshinkoshin Falls and Kitahama Station before the Aurora at the roadside station. The trip skips the Prison Museum altogether.
Which tour shows you what
| Sight | JUN Travel | H.I.S. | Club Tourism |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abashiri Prison Museum | Yes | Yes, with lunch | No |
| Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum | Yes | Only if the cruise is cancelled | Mt Tento viewpoint only |
| Museum of Northern Peoples | Yes | No | No |
| Lake Abashiri hot springs | No | Overnight | No |
| Shiretoko and Utoro | No | No | Overnight |
| Price | ~$2,082 per group | ~$401 per person | ~$430 per person |
For museums, JUN Travel's private day is the clear choice, though lunch is on you and you must reach Abashiri first. The Sapporo guide covers that journey, and the page on private days goes into how the day runs.
Monbetsu instead
The other icebreaker port lies about 100 km (60 miles) northwest. The two-day Garinko trip from Sapporo, from ~$427, goes there instead of Abashiri, so none of the sights above are on it. It sails on a different ship and has no reviews yet. Aurora or Garinko weighs the two towns, and the best time to see the drift ice helps you choose the week.