We’d just returned from two weeks in the UK, a highlight of which had been five days of sea kayaking instruction with Sea Kayak Oban. We were now back in Hokkaido, and keen to get out paddling again here.
Daikoku-jima had always been on my list of must-paddle locations since I saw someone on Yamap post about it. Given a good weather forecast, it looked like a great, challenging paddle.
So it happened that there was a good forecast for a couple of days on the 4th and 5th of September. Haidee and I made a beeline for the east of Hokkaido to take a look.
Our main concern for this paddle was the Pacific swell on the island’s eastern side. From where we were, about 3km west of the island at the put-in, we couldn’t ascertain the conditions. We figured we just had to go and have a look.
I’d spied a possible put-in on Google Satellite view on Google Maps, and when we arrived at the top of the small private road, we paused for a bit, wondering if we’d be allowed down it. We couldn’t see anyone around to ask, so we just drove down and parked up out of the way.
I walked back up the road to double-check if there was anyone we could ask about parking down near the beach. I noticed a local kelp-harvester cleaning kelp in his shed half way up the road, so I knocked on the door.
“Hi there, is it OK if we park our van down below for a few hours,” I enquired.
“No problem at all,” he beamed. “I hope my truck isn’t in the way.”
We finally got onto the water at 10:30am. Where we were in Akkeshi Bay, the water was flat and calm. All quite idyllic.
Once we were out around Aininkappu Cape, the swell heightened somewhat, and we felt strangely uneasy in our kayaks. The last five days we spent kayaking was in Scotland, with a local instructor. Out here, we were how on our own, in a location we’d never paddled before.
In the distance, we could see our destination for the day – Daikoku-jima. In between Daikoku-jima and the mainland was the diminutive Ko-jima.
It seemed all rather far.
It didn’t take long to smash out the 1km or so from Aininkappu Cape to the broad headland closest to Ko-jima Island. From there, it was a 1km paddle to the small intermediary island. For now, both islands were plainly visible.
It was an easy paddle from the mainland to Ko-jima Island, but we took a break anyway, as it was unlikely we’d get any more breaks until we were all the way around Daikoku-jima – the island is off-limits to landing without a permit.
Ko-jima was home to a large gravel kelp-drying field, and a number of kelp-harvester and fisher huts. There was no one around, and the island felt all rather deserted.
We gobbled down some rice balls and snacks – it was lunchtime after all – and returned to the water. As we paddled the 1km from Ko-jima to Daikoku-jima, we could feel the effect of a heavy swell from the southeast. Each swell rose up and broke hard on the shallow reefs to the east of us, and we both made mental notes not to veer too far to the east.
We decided to paddle clockwise around the island, as this would get the more spicy conditions out of the way earlier in the paddle. We figured we’d enjoy the latter half of the circumnavigation in the lee of the southeast swells.
As we started around the northeast tip of Daikoku Island, we were now paddling in unencumbered Pacific swell. In shallower parts nearer the island, it would curl up and break forcefully onto the rocky shore. We kept our distance from the island, and enjoyed relatively long-period swells of about 1 to 1.5m in height. Through my camera’s viewfinder, I had to time my shots well, as Haidee would completely disappear from view as she paddled over the crest of the swells.
We made it about half way along Daikoku-jima’s eastern shoreline when the fog started rolling in.
It seemed to appear out of nowhere, from the east perhaps. It was wafting up and over the island from east to west.
It started high up on the island’s cliffs at first, but soon started dropping down lower to the sea’s surface, obscuring our view of the tops of the cliffs.
Haidee and I discussed our options. Currently, the fog was not too dense – we had about 100m visibility or so. If it got any more dense, however, it would make rounding the island’s southern cape rather hairy.
That said, we were confident that conditions on the island’s western side would be much more relaxed in the island’s lee. The fog appeared to be bunching up on this eastern side of the island too, so it felt reasonable to expect the western side to be clear.
The fog had descended behind us too, so even if we decided to turn around, if the fog got thicker we knew we’d have to paddle a tricky channel of favourable water between breaking waves to the east (on Ko-jima’s eastern reefs) and breaking waves to the west (on Daikou-jima’s shoreline).
We decided to press on around the island, and mercifully, the fog didn’t worsen.
Near the southern cape, there was a large seal colony. We could only just make out the seals from our vantage point 100m off the island.
Here and there, Haidee would disappear from view as she dropped into the troughs of the swells.
Eventually, we made it to the southern cape of Daikoku-jima. As expected, the western side looked fine, clear, and the sea looked flat.
It was exhilarating to now have the large southeasterly swell at our sterns, and our pace quickened as they pushed us on around the cape.
The western side of the island was a completely different world to what we’d paddled thus far. It was like a lake. Curious seals popped their heads up to watch us as we paddled by.
Towards the northern end of the island were curious caves carved into the cliffside. We would later find out these were once berths for Japan Navy special attack boats during the Second World War.
With fog slowly closing in behind us, we didn’t dawdle as we made our way along Daikok-jima’s western shoreline. Once at the northern spit, we made a quick dash to Ko-jima Island.
We landed on Ko-jima island again for a quick stretch of the legs, and looked behind us towards Daikoki-jima. We were surprised to see it was now completely enveloped in fog.
Lest Ko-jima island also be swallowed into the fog, we quickly got back onto the water and made our way back to the mainland.
By the time we returned to Aininkappu Cape, Daikoku-jima had reappeared from the fog.
The bay we’d pushed off from five hours ago was still idyllic and calm.
Over all, this was a very varied and engaging paddle – an offshore island, some short crossings, big swells and breaking waves, and seals keeping us company.
For our post-paddle soak, we checked out the very rustic and traditional Kiraku-yu 喜楽湯 sento (public bath) in Akkeshi township. This sento was the most authentically Showa era (1930-1980’s) public bath we’d ever been to. From the genkan entrance to the place, women and men entered separately, but one staff member was manning the cash register just inside the changing area, with full view of both the men’s and women’s changing areas. Haidee and I exchanged pleasantries to each other as we paid our entrance fee, and then went on our separate ways into the men’s and women’s changing areas.
The female staff member was chatting nonchalantly with a local guy who had just finished in the bathing area, and was toweling off, naked in the changing area. It was all rather novel, and certainly worth a visit if you’ve never experienced such a traditional public bath before.
