There's a river called "Kamuiwakka" on the Shiretoko Peninsula. The specificity of the river is the temperature of the water. It's warm! The farther up you go, the warmer the water is. There are several waterfall basins on the route of the river, each has its own water temperature. Visitors are able to enjoy a spa of their choice. I have been there twice and I wanted to see the site spewing from the ground, but I didn't have climbing gear at that time and I was also scared of the brown bears. When I looked down on the see, the water around the outlet of the river became tinted yellow. It would be due to the sulphur.
Looking at the map, I found Mt. Iwoyama upstream. I was waiting on the deck for the ship passing by the mountain. The first three pictures are of Mt. Iwoyama. No trees and grass were found on its top. It would be due to the sulphur. "Iwo" means sulphur and "yama" means mountain. I remembered the "Sulphur Mountain" in Banff. It's interesting that the method of naming is similar between Canadian and Japanese.
I'd visited the river in 1997 and 2001. The internet wasn't so popular at that time, but I wanted lots of people to see my pictures and put together a website of each trip. I'll show you the link to the websites and check the wonderful pictures.
(Vocabulary)
basin / plunge basin / water pocket / waterfall basin 滝つぼ
upstream (川の) 上流に
The village is about 5 miles upstream. 村は川上に約５マイル行った所にある．
カムイワッカと呼ばれる川がある。お湯の流れる川だ。過去２回行ったことがあり、湯のわき出る場所を見たくなった。だが、登山道具を持っておらず、熊の危険もあり、登れていない。また、川下を覗き込むと海の色が一部変わっている。この川の硫黄のせいだ。以来、上流も下流も見てみたくて仕方が無い。
地図を見ると上流には硫黄山と呼ばれる山がある。字の通り硫黄を噴きだしているのだろう。それを船から捉えた。最初の３枚がその写真。硫黄のために周囲には草木がない。
１９９７年と２００１年に訪れたときのアルバムへのリンクを貼っておきます。
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