An exciting part of our Hokkaido winter vacation was taking an ice-breaker cruise along the Sea of Okhotsk. There are two ice-breaker cruisers in Hokkaido:
- “Aurora” at Abashiri
- “Garinko II” at Monbetsu.
We boarded the Garinko II at Monbetsu. There are observation decks on the cruiser for you to view hull smashing through the blocks of ice. Ice-breaker cruises are available from the end of January to the beginning of March, although the season varies from year to year depending on the weather.
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| The seals give birth and raise their young in Okhotsk. |
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| I'm wearing a few layers of clothings! Gosh, it was freezing outside! |
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| Flo & me in front of the cruiser. |
Monbetsu is famous for drift ice, a yearly phenomenon which reaches the city every January or February from the northern Sea of Okhotsk. It is noted that Monbetsu does not have passenger rail service. There are buses to Sapporo and Asahikawa, as well as a daily flight to Tokyo from Monbetsu Airport.
