After seeing wild brown bears, we made a very close encounter with one Ezo Red Fox (Kita Kitsune in Japanese) in Shiretoko Peninsula, Hokkaido, Japan.

Wild and cute Ezo Red Fox in Shiretoko

Yuka and I were backpacking in Shiretoko Peninsula, Hokkaido in July 2011 with our fellow “adventurers.”

After seeing two wild brown bears, we were originally going to a natural hot spring and waterfalls Kamuiwakka Falls (Kamuiwakka no Taki) in Shiretoko Peninsula, Japan.

However, 30 minutes later, we decided to go back to see the bears at the same spot with one of our fellow adventurers Mr. Tomonori Inagaki, a professional auto camper, because he was driving ahead of us and didn’t recognize brown bears.

At the same spot, there was no sign of brown bears. Bears only left huge footprints on mud…

After that, we made a very close encounter with one Ezo Red Fox (Kita Kitsune in Japanese). Fox was just relaxing and lying down on a dirt road like he was waiting for us to take photos.

Fox was so cute and small though. Not only feeling from this event, even though we have been living in Japan for many years, we never really noticed and felt that there were natural wild lives in Japan until we went to Shiretoko Hokkaido.

We only knew big cities in Japan. People say “see the world,” but recently we are realizing the fact that there are so many good places to visit locally in Japan. Places we lived in or visited such as Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and other major places or tourist spots were “very small” in a different sense. Japan is much bigger than we thought…

Shiretoko Peninsula is located in the north-east of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. Shiretoko became a national park in 1965 and is designated as a World Natural Heritage site in 2005 by UNESCO.

Shiretoko Peninsula is located in the north-east of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. Shiretoko became a national park in 1965 and is designated as a World Natural Heritage site in 2005 by UNESCO.