Northwest Hokkaido · Teuri & YagishiriNo.918★★Open in map →
Teuri and Yagishiri Islands
Two islands on a single ferry line out of Haboro. Teuri keeps Japan's only breeding colony of common murres, on the cliffs of its west coast; Yagishiri keeps a wind-shaped yew forest and, beyond the trees, sheep pasture.
- FromHaboro Port
- ~95 minFerry from Haboro Port
- Get off atTeuri Port ferry terminal (Haboro Enkai Ferry)
- From there
- Teuri and Yagishiri Islands
The sweet spot
Neither island is undiscovered. The seabird ground and the yew forest are both national natural monuments, and the whole group is a quasi-national park. What thins the crowd is the water and the calendar. There is a single operator, the winter table is thin, and rough sea on this coast cancels boats outright. The people who come have decided to come.
Where it is
102 more notes in Hokkaido · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Yagishiri Portthe first call in each direction, on the island's east side
- Yagishiri Local Museumthe old Kona house, a two-storey timber merchant's home with its telegraph room left in place
- Yagishiri's yew forestonko trees held low and thick by the wind, covering a large part of the island
- Teuri Portthe second call, on the north-east side, where the island road begins
- Chidorigaurathe west-coast breeding ground, watched from the seabird hide and the Kannon-misaki lookout
- Akaiwaa rock stack standing off the west cliffs, with a burrow colony of rhinoceros auklets around it
How to actually get there
- Sapporo → Haboro (Engan Bus Tokkyu Haboro coach, or rail to Fukagawa or Chippubetsu and a bus from there).
- Haboro town → Haboro Ferry Terminal.
- Haboro → Yagishiri → Teuri (Haboro Enkai Ferry: ferry Ororon 2 or fast boat Sunliner 2).
- Teuri Port → Route 548 round to the west coast for the cliffs and the seabird lookouts.
- Haboro Port to Teuri
- Haboro has no railway. Engan Bus runs the Tokkyu Haboro coach from Sapporo, and the tourism association routes rail passengers to Fukagawa or Chippubetsu to pick up a bus there. Sailings leave from Haboro Ferry Terminal on either the ferry Ororon 2 or the fast boat Sunliner 2, calling at Yagishiri before Teuri.
- Back to Haboro
- The same boat returns the way it came, Teuri then Yagishiri then Haboro. On the autumn and winter table the single return leaves Teuri late in the morning, which rules out a day trip from the mainland. Book the boat and a bed together rather than separately.
About the place
The two islands lie off the same stretch of the Sea of Japan coast, Yagishiri about twenty-five kilometres west of Haboro and Teuri a little further out. Teuri is roughly twelve kilometres around, a low green dome whose western side has broken away into cliff; the Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau puts the seabird population gathering there at around a million. Yagishiri is flatter and heavily wooded, and its Japanese yew, onko to islanders, grows in the low thick form the exposure forces on it. Both sit inside the Shokanbetsu-Teuri-Yagishiri Quasi-National Park. One boat covers both, calling at Yagishiri first in each direction.
How to enjoy it
Haboro Enkai Ferry runs the line and the timetable changes several times through the year. From October to early April there is one round trip a day; the peak-summer table runs five or six. The crossing to Teuri is about ninety-five minutes by ferry and about sixty by fast boat, with Yagishiri called at first each way. Two islands in one day only works on the busy schedule, so on the thin one, pick an island and stay the night.
Background & history
The seabird ground on Teuri's west coast became a national natural monument in 1938, when the cliffs and offshore rocks were designated; the plateau above them, where rhinoceros auklets nest in burrows, was added in 1979. Yagishiri's yew woods were designated separately in 1983, under the criterion for a rare forest flora. The islands' human record survives in one building above all: the Kona house, completed in 1900 for the family that ran the herring fishery here, which doubled as a draper's, a general store and the local post and telegraph office. It is a Hokkaido-designated cultural property and now the town's local museum.
Before you go
- Cash
- Tickets are bought at the terminal counter before boarding and the ferry and the fast boat are priced differently. Carry cash for both islands rather than counting on cards, and settle meals with your inn when you book.
- Before you go
- The schedule is seasonal and the sea decides the rest, since sailings on this coast are cancelled outright in rough weather. The tourism association lists no bus on either island; what it does list is rental bikes and cars on Teuri and hire taxis and bicycles on Yagishiri. The west side of Teuri is open cliff, so the wind there is nothing like the wind in the village.
- Another way
- Because the boat calls at both islands in each direction, you can take Yagishiri outbound and Teuri on the way home, or the reverse. Between the two the crossing is short, about twenty-five minutes by ferry and fifteen by fast boat.
- After you get off
- The boat ties up at Teuri Port on the north-east side. Hokkaido Prefectural Route 548 starts here and loops the island, and the town branch office, the shops and the school stand along it to the south. Inns meet the boat, which is the island's own custom.