Posted on Aug 1, 2023
0

Posted on Aug 1, 2023

0 0

12km

Distance

0.5 day(s)

Time

5/5

Remoteness

4/5

Water clarity

7.5/10

Difficulty

May-Oct

Best season

TOPO
The Iwabe Coast 岩部海岸 on the Tsugaru Strait 津軽海峡 shoreline in southern Hokkaido is a surprisingly well-kept secret as far as sea kayaking goes. This short 10km stretch of uninhabited and remote coastline boasts some of Hokkaido's most spectacular coastal scenery and inlets, rivaled only by the Shiretoko Peninsula in far eastern Hokkaido. Expect numerous waterfalls, deep caves, rock arches, beautifully remote inlets, and a refreshing lack of flotsam on the beaches. It's a remote coast suitable for experienced outdoors-people, but access is easy and there are wild camping options along the way.

We visited this route on Jul 09, 2023

Paddlers: Haidee, Timbah, Greg, Martin, Chris. Thanks to Funayoi Kayaks for advice on this route.

Last updated Aug 11, 2023

Topomap

Route Map

Need to know details

Location

The Iwabe Coast is an inaccessible-by-land snippet of coast sandwiched between Fukushima Town 福島町 and Shiriuchi Town 知内町 in far southern Hokkaido, southwest of Hakodate City 函館市. The western end of the route is close to where the Hokkaido Shinkansen bullet train tunnel exits the sea. The body of water here is the mighty Tsugaru Strait 津軽海峡, separating Hokkaido from Honshu, Japan’s largest mainland island.

Put-in Location: Google Maps

This route can be paddled in either direction. Here we describe starting from the very convenient Ikarikai Parking Area, replete with public toilets, a water spiggot, and a somewhat curious gravel area where people can (and do) camp. There are concrete steps down to the coast, and there are a couple of options for putting-in, in the shelter of the large rocks. If you’re on your own and would prefer not to carry your kayak down to the water, there’s also the option of putting in just east of Shiriuchi Kotaniishi fishing port here. There’s a concrete ramp down to a small protected beach.

Take-out Location: Google Maps

At the western end of the route is Iwabe Port. Officially this is a fishing port. Therefore, as per Hokkaido bylaws, it’s technically not allowed for recreational watercraft to land in the port. However, the port is rarely used for fishing these days. There’s a small sandy beach at the far western corner of the port that is most suitable for kayaks to put in, in order to keep out of the way. The port is also used by the friendly folk at Iwabe Cruise, a family-run business taking tourists on boat cruises along the coast – on a busy day they’ll do two or three cruises. Kayakers should be mindful to keep out of the way of cruise boats.

General notes

It’s hard to overstate just how diverse and engaging this section of coast is. Within Hokkaido, we consider it second only to Shiretoko Peninsula as far as feelings of remoteness and wild nature are concerned. In fact, compared to Shiretoko, there’s much less boat traffic on the Iwabe Coast. There’s even a remarkable lack of small fishing vessels. Along the way are secluded inlets, inset and bounded by high cliffs. The forest hugging the cliffs is untouched and wild. On a clear day, you’ll be able to see the northern tip of Honshu in the distance across the Tsugaru-kaikyo Strait.

In places, there are flat, rocky reefs that would be perfect for snorkeling. We’d also recommend carrying a head torch and having it handy – there are a couple of impossibly long sea caves that are great fun to explore.

  • Difficulty: On a calm day with a clear forecast, even beginners will enjoy this coast. However, conditions can change fast on this exposed coast – wind and currents can combine to create very complex sea conditions. Escape options are non-existent also. Overall, this coast is best suited for upper-intermediate paddlers with plenty of experience.
  • Paddling direction: Below we describe paddling from east to west, but either direction is fine – paddlers can adjust based on the wind direction. The relatively short total distance also lends well to an out-and-back loop trip rather than a one-way trip requiring the long 40-minute shuttle.
Route description

Starting from the Ikarikai Parking area, navigate the rocky outcrops at the put-in and start paddling southwest along the coast. The first 3km from the put-in to Yagoshi-misaki cape includes some shallow rocky reefs that are fun to weave in and out of if the conditions allow it. They’re also great for snorkelling.

Yagoshi-misaki cape 矢越岬 is where the coast bends to the west, so can be the border between favourable and challenging sea states. It’s best to hold objectives lightly therefore, and be open to turning back at the cape if conditions on the other side of the cape are unfavorable.

Paddlers will notice concrete pier-like structures on the east and west sides of Yagoshi-misaki cape. It’s possible to land at these and climb stairs to a shrine (on the west side of the cape) and a small lighthouse structure. Depending on the season, the stairs and ladders may be overgrown with poison-ivy though, so take care – two in our group suffered for weeks after our visit with rashes after making the trek to the 121m point on the eastern side of the cape.

Arguably it’s the section of coast on the western side of Yagoshi-misaki that has the most remote and engaging feeling. There are numerous sea caves, arches, and inlets to explore. The first option for landing along this stretch – the Tsuzura-sawa River inlet ツヅル沢入江 – is about 2km west of Yagoshi-misaki. This is a phenomenally remote-feeling valley with a wild river, easy-landing beach, and rock arch. It would make for a suitable place to camp if you’re OK with a relative lack of flat ground to sleep.

About 600m along the coast is the Blue Cave (青の洞窟, ao-no-dokutsu). This is a truly collossal cave with high ceilings, two entrances, and undercut walls that allow light to glow under the water, painting the water an azure blue. Tourist cruises (up to four times per day) also enter the cave, so take care if you’re there between the hours of 9am and 4pm.

Another 1km west of the Blue Cave is Funakakushi Inlet 船隠入江, which literally means ‘ship-hiding cove’. When you see it, you’ll understand. The cove is partially hidden behind a small but very tall island – Funakakushi Island 船隠島 (lit. ship-hiding island). This cove has more flat area for pitching a tent, and also has a stream with fresh water.

From Funakakushi Inlet it’s another 4km or so to the take out at the largely disused Iwabe fishing port 岩部漁港. On this last stretch, you’ll paddle along the Iwabe Cliffs 岩部断崖, and there’s a nice waterfall at the coast at Tatami-gawa river タタミ川. Tsubakura-misaki cape ツバクラ岬 can have some current effects due to Tsugaru Strait eddies, so paddlers should be ready for a brief period of messy chop in the immediate area.

As mentioned above, the Iwabe fishing port is only used by a handful of small fishing vessels these days, but it is used almost daily (up to four times a day) by Iwabe Cruises – they run tourist sightseeing cruises in a small boat along the coast to just before Yagashi-misaki. Kayakers should strive to hug the inside of the breakwater on the western side of the port, in order to avoid getting in the way of boats in the port. Technically, as per Hokkaido bylaws prohibiting recreational craft using fishing ports, kayakers are not allowed to use the port unless in an emergency. Enforcement of the bylaw in Hokkaido is generally quite lax outside of the Otaru/Shakotan area, but as a kayaker, it’s best to keep aware of and sensitive to the wishes of other legitimate port users.

Route Timing
Trip time: 4hrs 0min

While it’s perfectly possible to smash this route out in less than three hours, we’d recommend making a day of it. The inlets are nice spots for a secluded break, and there are a number of caves to explore along the way.

Transport

Public transport:

Bus: The eastern end of the route at Ikarikai is accessible by a public bus run by Hakodate Bus 函館バス. They run the No. 410/411 (410/411系統) bus from the Hakodate Bus Center 函館バスセンター (location) in Hakodate City to Taki-no-ma bus stop 滝の間バス停 (location), right outside a concrete ramp down to a small protected beach, just west of Ikarikai Parking area. Google Maps has good timetabling information, here. For those traveling to the area by train, it might be more convenient to catch the bus from Kikonai Station 木古内駅 instead (directions here). Iwabe fishing port at the western end of the route is not accessible by public transport. Central Fukushima village is about 8km west along the coast from the port.

Taxi: There is one taxi company in Fukushima Village at the western end of the coast – Yamazaki Hire 山崎ハイヤー (TEL: 0139-47-2014). They’re 10km west of the take out at Iwabe Port. At the eastern end, the closest taxi company is Hokko Hire 北光ハイヤー (location | TEL: 0139-22-2259) in Kikonai Town, about 18km (25mins) from the put in at Ikarikai Parking Area.

By car: 

There is plenty of parking at both ends of the route – Ikarikai Parking area イカリカイ駐車帯 (location) in the east, and a large gravel area at Iwabe fishing port 岩部漁港 (location) in the west. Note that the shuttle between both ends of the route is quite long – just over 40km (about 45mins by car).

Physical maps

ELECTRONIC CHARTS
Japanese-language ENCs are available on the Japanese-language new pec smart smartphone app (Android | iPhone). 960yen per month for a subscription.

PRINTED CHARTS

The JHA/Japan Coast Guard 1:125,000 nautical chart for this area is Aomori-wan to Hakodate-wan 青森港至函館港 (W1159 – buy online).

Official Topo Map: Wakimoto (涌元) – map no. NK-54-22-11-2
Official Topo Map 2: Sengen (千軒) – map no. NK-54-22-11-4

NOTE: The official 1/25000 topo map(s) above can be purchased for 350yen from Kinokuniya bookstore next to Sapporo Station or online (in Japanese).

route safety

Given the remoteness, lack of boat traffic, and lack of escape options, this section of coast is best suited to paddlers with good outdoor skills and experience. Much of the coast is made up of rocky cliffs diving straight into the sea, and even where landing is possible, escape on foot is impossible. Also note that the Iwabe Coast is known for messy, difficult waves when wind and currents collide. On a calm day with a clear forecast, even beginners will enjoy this stretch of coast, but consequences are very high for the unprepared if anything does go wrong. Overall, we’d recommend this stretch of coast for upper-intermediate paddlers who have the knowledge and experience to handle a variety of sea states and conditions.

Weather forecast

Windy.com weather forecast for Iwabe Coast

Tide
Tide information for Wakimoto

CampSites

Ikarikai Parking (イカリカイ駐車公園)

Ikarikai Parking Area is a beautiful seaside area at the end of the road in far southern Hokkaido on the Tsugaru Straight. It’s not an official campground, but it is acceptable (and common) to pitch tents on the gravel area next to the parking lot. Tent pegs work surprisingly well in the gravel, so non-freestanding tents are also OK.

Location: 41.53527 N / 140.42864 E | Free | Open: Apr-Nov
Closest Onsen: Komorebi Onsen (こもれび温泉) | 350yen | 6.6km from campground
Funakakushi Cove (船隠入江)

Funakakushi Cove is a water-access only remote coastal cove on the beautiful Iwabe Coast on the Tsugaru Straight. There are no facilities at the fine-gravel beach, but there is a small stream with filterable water. The cove is in bear country, so campers should make sure to take bear precautions.

Location: 41.51658 N / 140.37415 E | Free
Closest Onsen: None
Onsen nearby

Komorebi Onsen こもれび温泉 (location, 350yen) is the closest onsen to the eastern end of the route, about 6.5km north of Ikarikai Parking area. This is a public facility, supporting the employment of town residents who need social support. It has a number of indoor baths, a cold plunge pool, a sauna, and a small outdoor bath. There’s also a basic attached restaurant selling curry rice and other basic meals – the restaurant is open from 11am to 2:30pm and 5pm to 8pm. For a more rustic ‘authentic’ onsen experience, consider a soak at the more well-known historic Shiriuchi Onsen 知内温泉 (location, 800yen). Their baths are caked in mineral deposits, and there are indoor and outdoor pools. Unless you are staying the night there, they don’t offer meals.

Extra Resources

Yamakei Sea Kayaking Map (Yama to Keikoku, 2005), p. 28-29

Guide Options

If you’re in the area and keen to paddle with a guide, consider contacting Choko-san at Funayoi Kayaks, near Hakodate. Guiding isn’t his main business, but he may be able to juggle his schedule to make room for a tour, or perhaps point you in the direction of a guide who can. If you can’t arrange kayaking, then we heartily recommend a 75 minute cruise with Iwabe Cruise for only 3,000yen (website | Instagram).

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Show Full Route Notes Close Route Notes

Route Trip Notes

It’s officially a routine by now. Wednesday rolls around and we start scouring Windy.com for likely opportunities for good quality sea kayaking in the weekend. It just so happened that this weekend was a long weekend – Sat, Sun, Mon. So we were looking a bit further afield than usual.

The Iwabe Coast had been on my radar for a long while now. And lo and behold, there was a great big morning weather window for it on the Sunday morning. It would be a solid four hour drive south from Sapporo, but the three day weekend would make that less taxing.

Game on.

Chris and family were also in Hokkaido at the time, so they were able to join the weekend too.

We had a nice family-friendly paddle on Lake Onuma on the Saturday, to get the kids out on the boats.

The forecast for the next day was for wind and fog from noon, so we decided on a crack-of-dawn start at 4am.

So after the paddle on Lake Onuma, we all moved southwest to Shiriuchi. We weren’t 100% sure where we would be camping that night. We knew there was an official campground about 20mins drive away from the put-in, but that would require getting the boats sorted in the morning of the paddle. Ideally, we’d get all the boats ready to go and sitting at the put-in the night before, ready to paddle away bright and early.

So, we first decided that we’d take a look at the put-in, to check to see if we might be able to sneakily camp there for the night.

The excitement was palpable when we discovered that the Ikarikai Parking area is a popular free camping spot! There couldn’t be a better put-in for an early start on the water.

It was a somewhat festive atmosphere at the parking area. Already there were four or five groups camped up on the gravel. Kids were splashing about in the rock pools. Access to the coast was super easy. Perfection.

Along for this trip was Martin. We’d not paddled with Martin before, but he just so happened to be in the area after picking up a second-hand sea kayak from Funayoi Kayaks near Hakodate. The kayak in question was one I’d had my eye on the preceding week on Yahoo! Auctions, and I was thrilled to hear he’d managed to win the auction. His paddle with us would be his first in his own sea kayak (he’d had a lot of river kayaking experience).

The new sea kayak was a Wilderness Systems Tempest 165 Pro, in mint condition.

It was about 5pm by the time we got the tents set up and boats all sorted for the morning. We then drove all the way back to Kikonai Town for dinner and onsen at Kikonai View Onsen. By the time we’d had a long soak and dinner, it was after 8pm.

Chris was staying at Shiriuchi Onsen with the family, and we’d agreed to do a shuttle that night. So we messaged him once we were done with the onsen.

“We’re on our way,” I messaged. “See you at the take out in 1hr.”

About 15 minutes after getting on the road, however, we realized that if we did the shuttle tonight, we’d likely be getting back to the put-in and into bed at almost 11pm.

An early start on the water was much more important than getting the shuttle out of the way that night, so I messaged Chris again.

“Cancel that! We’ll do the shuttle once we’re done paddling tomorrow,” I messaged.

“No worries,” Chris replied.

It wasn’t until the next day that Chris let us know he’d driven about 20 mins in the direction of the take-out before getting my message. Sorry Chris!

The next morning broke mostly calm, with just a light breeze from the northeast – a tailwind.

We were up at 3am for a 4am start.

The VIP of the day was Deb, who roused herself up at 3:15am to get Chris to the put-in at 3:45am. Thanks to her, we were able to get on the water at 4:30am sharp.

The sun was just painting the sky red as we lowered the boats down to the water.

It was a beautiful time to be on the water.

We made good time weaving in and out of the rocky reefs along the coast from Ikarikai to Yagoshi-misaki cape. 

At the cape, a few of us landed at the concrete pier on the eastern side of the cape. I knew from Google Satellite images that there appeared to be stairs up to a high point on the cape, and maybe a shrine.

Timbah, Martin, Greg, Haidee and I started up the old stairs, overgrown with foliage.

“Argh! There’s ants everywhere,” Greg yelled as he stood inspecting a plant that looked to him to be poison-ivy.

“That’s it, I’m going back to the kayaks,” he declared. Haidee followed.

I pushed past them and carried on, convinced there was nothing to worry about. Timbah and Martin were less gung-ho.

“I’m certain that’s poison ivy,” said Timbah. He had told me previously that he was particularly sensitive to poison ivy, having experienced almost continuous nasty rashes in his youth after playing outside in the woods in the US.

“Oh come on, it’ll be fine,” I said in total and utter ignorance.

I’m from New Zealand, where we don’t have poison ivy. So I’ve never seen it before, and have never experienced the bad effects of it.

So I pushed on through the bushy shrubs growing up through the stairs, with Timbah and Martin – against their best judgement they would later find out – following behind. 

There were a couple more shrubs along the way that Timbah has identified as poison ivy. I just crashed through them. We all had bare legs.

The infrastructure leading up the cape was impressive. Ladders, concrete steps, a bridge.

At the 121m point on the map, we took some snaps of the view and headed back down to the kayaks. Again crashing through the suspect shrubs.

“I have no doubt that was poison ivy,” Timbah said as we got back to the coast. “If you can rinse it off with water, it might reduce the effects,” he said.

We both jumped into the sea and tried to rinse anything bad off our skin.

For the next four days I thought nothing more of it.

Back in the kayaks, we had now rounded Yagoshi-misaki cape, and were paddling along the amazing east-west section of the Iwabe Coast.

Colossal cliffs diving straight into the sea.

Small caves at first.

And then bigger.

And the inlets! In particular the inlet at the Tsuzura River mouth was breathtaking in its remote and wild atmosphere. Dare I say it, it was on par with the Shiretoko Peninsula. It would have been an amazing place to camp.

Beyond the Tsuzura Inlet the high cliffs and rugged coastline continued.

“This is second only to Shiretoko,” I mused to Haidee.

We feel like we’ve paddled a fair few sections of coast in Hokkaido now, and it’s rare to really feel a sense of remoteness. This coast had that sense.

We’d foolishly thought that we’d smash the paddle out in about four hours, but there was so much to see that if we kept up our pace, we’d definitely take more time than that.

Only problem was that the legend that is Deb, and the kids, were scheduled to meet us at the take-out after four hours. So, at around 3/4 along the coast, we pulled our fingers out and got paddling in earnest. A more thorough inspection of the coast and its coves and caves would have to wait for another time.

When we pulled into Iwabe Port, Deb and the kids were there already. We did a few jumps off the piers with them, and then got onto the shuttling. By 11am, we were all loaded up and ready to get going back to Sapporo. Like clockwork, and as per the forecast, by the time we rolled out of Iwabe Port, there was a significant mist and chop on the water.

POST-SCRIPT

About a week after the trip, Timbah and Martin were regretting their decision to follow the clueless New Zealander (me) up the steps on Yagoshi Cape, through the suspect bushes. Indeed they were apparently poison ivy, because both Timbah and Martin broke out in the most horrendous rashes.

“I had to go to the doctor for an IV drip and a course of steriods,” reported Martin.

“I officially now regret my decision to climb up those stairs,” said the usually unwaveringly positive Timbah. “I too had to go through a course of oral steroids because the rash had gone systemic.”

I (Rob) on the other hand, got away with nothing. Not even a hint of a rash.

The theory is that perhaps since I grew up in New Zealand, and had no previous exposure to poison ivy, I was unaffected. However, Timbah and Martin, both from the US, had spent their fair share of time around the stuff during their upbringing.

Either way, they both now have another reason not to trust New Zealanders 🙂

Comments | Queries | Reports

Done this route to Iwabe Coast, or other waterways nearby? Thinking of doing it? Please post any feedback, reports, or queries here. Thanks!

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Iwabe Coast Difficulty Rating

Category

Grade

Points

Strenuousness

Vertical Gain

D

25

Time ascending

D

0

Technicality

Altitude

D

0

Hazards

D

Navigation

D

Totals

25/100

GRADES range from A (very difficult) to D (easy). Hazards include exposure to avalanche and fall risk. More details here. Rating rubric adapted from Hokkaido Yukiyama Guidebook 北海道雪山ガイド.