Wakkanai

While there are plenty of attractions on paper, few of them are really that interesting, and hardly anything is worth going out of your way to see. But since Wakkanai is en route to the fascinating Rishiri-Rebun-Sarobetsu National Park which is worth travelling for, you might want to check out the following sights, which will fill out a day or two if you are in the area waiting for a ferry. Ryuhyo floating ice is of some interest in winter, and occurs either in February or March. It is ice that drifts in from the sea. If you need to kill time waiting at the airport, the nearby Meguma Wilderness Garden メグマ原生花園 is an option in spring when 300 different flowers are in bloom.

wakkanai park

Wakkanai Kōen 稚内公園 is a large park spreading over the grassy hills west of the town, offering some commanding views over the area. The rope-way has been closed, but it is only a short walk to the top beginning at the Hokumon Shrine　（北門神社). There are some nice walking trails to explore, and over 4,000 wild cherry trees grow in the park if you are here during Hanami mid-May. To get an even better view you can ascend the 70 meter high Motoe Hiraku Centennial Memorial Tower 開基百年記念塔・北方記念館 9AM-5PM Jul-Sep until 9PM for a 360° panoramic view of the cape, the expansive Sarobetsu Plain, the Rishiri Volcano and even sometimes to Sakhalin in Russia. Below is the two-story Northern Memorial Hall, which has a collection of documents relating to the local area and Sakhalin. In the weird, small Ice House ゲストハウス氷雪 you can take a footbath in ice, if that tickles your fancy.

The park also has an eclectic collection of statues and monuments - none of them are particularly pretty, but they sometimes come with interesting stories: the Statue of Nine Women 九人の乙女の碑 is a memorial to the 9 women working at a Sakhalin telegraph station who committed suicide when they learned about the fall of Karafuto Sakhalin to Russian troops. Less dramatic is the Ice and Snow Gate 氷雪の門, a bronze statue of a woman facing the direction of Karafuto, longing for the home she was forced to leave behind. Without the nationalistic undertones is the Monument to Taro and Jiro 南極観測樺太犬記念碑, two Siberian huskies that an Antarctic expedition was forced to leave behind. When their trainer returned with another expedition the following year to bury his beloved dogs, much to everyone's surprise he was warmly greeted by the two dogs, who had survived a whole Antarctic winter. There are some more details of their story in the Youth Science Center, and their story is detailed in the 1983 film Nankyoku Monogatari.

cape soya

Sōya Misaki 宗谷岬. about 30 km 19 mi northeast of Wakkanai across the Soya Bay, is the northernmost point of Hokkaido, and aside from a small inaccessible and uninhabited island it is also the northernmost point of Japan. Naturally the Japanese have gone out of their way to commemorate this fact with the largely uninspiring Northernmost Point Monument 日本最北端の地の碑, a gray concrete triangle engraved with accomplishments. Right next to it is a Statue of Mamiya Rinzō 間宮林蔵の銅像, a Japanese explorer from the Edo period famous for his explorations and mapping of Karafuto Sakhalin, and discovering it was an island. Nearby you also find an Old Naval Watchtower 旧海軍望楼 dating back to the conflicts over control of Sakhalin during the 1904 Russo-Japanese War.

In the hills behind the cape near the lighthouse, there are several additional monuments. The Tower of Prayer 大韓航空機撃墜事件の慰霊塔 is a memorial to those who lost their lives when Soviet fighters shot down Korean Air flight KL007 over Moneron Island in 1983. Fittingly right next to it, you find the Bell for World Peace 世界平和の鐘 a replica of a bell located in the garden opposite the United Nations Building in New York.

There is also the Wahoo Peace Memorial dedicated to the 1943 sinking of of the famous American submarine USS Wahoo off the coast by Japanese air and sea forces. The memorial commemorates the Wahoo's crew who was entirely lost and to the Japanese who lost their lives as a result of her attacks.