RtG Japan Daily Dispatch - day00 - Flipbook - Page 8
18 September to
16 October 2025
Day 3
Akankohan to Shiretoko (285km)
21 September 2025
Photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
The Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, perhaps the most important kami in the Shinto religion, was a constant figure
throughout our last two outings in Andalucia and Suffolk. Both were characterised by tinder-dry landscapes
and blistering heat. But she’d forsaken us today and, even before the cars left the MTC, the oilskins had
been unpacked when we woke to a very soggy morning with mist hanging in the trees surrounding the lake.
The torrential overnight rain, along with an impressive roll
of thunder and an early morning emergency alert, was the
talk of the breakfast bar this morning. Flooding had struck
a nearby area but, thankfully, nothing affected us. An epic
day in the Akan National Park and onwards to the remote
and rugged Shiretoko Peninsula was made all the more
memorable by the epic weather.
Despite the rain, we were able to enjoy some spectacular
and empty mountain roads en-route to the Lake Mashū
Passage Control, where we could stand and imagine what
the ‘most beautiful lake in Japan’ looked like beneath the
mist that stubbornly refused to lift.
A little further down the road, and with a sulphurous
odour filling the air, Russ Smith and Owen Turner took on
the task of forestry management, pulling fallen trees off
the road. They set-up their Passage Control at the foot of
Iozan (Mount Iō), where the ground is stained yellow, steam
hisses and puddles bubble.
Steamed eggs are a local specialty, but few crews took
the opportunity to try one before they set out for the
Regularity through the woods around Kussharo-ko, Japan’s
largest caldera lake and home to a monster nicknamed
Kusshi. Those crews who’d managed to evade the twin
perils of the bears and this supernatural creature, were
rewarded with a mid-morning Time Control coffee stop
in the Kussharo Prince Hotel, where bags of chocolatecovered strawberries were offered to fortify them for the
next two sections.
The first of these Regularities ran from Tsubetsu on a
variety of very wet surfaces across exposed farmland,
whilst the second ran through the woodland around Lake
Chimikeppu.
www.rallytheglobe.com
