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Without your own transport you'll find it difficult to take the most direct coastal route from Wakkanai to the highlights of eastern Hokkaido. There are no through buses running along the sparsely populated coast and, by train, you'll have to return to Asahikawa before you can transfer to the line out to Abashiri . From this small port, 350km northeast of Sapporo and well-known throughout Japan for its old maximum-security prison, you can take winter boat tours through the drift ice floating down from Siberia into the Sea of Okhotsk. Jutting into this inhospitable expanse of water is the amazing Shiretoko National Park , one of the country's most remote and primeval peninsulas, featuring abundant wildlife, dramatic cliffs, ancient forests and a volcanically heated waterfall cascading down a mountain into natural bathing pools. Inland, south of the peninsula, the Akan National Park pales in comparison to Hakkaido's other national parks, but is not without its own attractions, including three scenic lakes, home to a winter population of large Whooper Swans. Further ecotourist delights abound at Kushiro and Kiritappu wetland parks , and a fittingly dramatic end to a tour of eastern Hokkaido awaits at the rocky cape Erimo Misaki , the windiest place in Japan and home to a seal colony.
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