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Shiretoko NP, Hokkaido
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
Furepe Falls, reached by the trail behind the Center, has no stream feeding it: rain and snowmelt seep underground and emerge from the cliff. Its gentle trickle earned it the nickname “Maiden’s Tears.”
The Center’s taps still draw from a source found by settlers in 1956, when they searched deep forest for clean water. That historic line also feeds the small outdoor faucet beside the nearby 100-Square-Meter Movement House.
Beside the Center, the Forest Keepers Trail crosses land saved by Shari’s 1977 “100-square-meter” campaign. By 1997, 49,024 people had raised ¥520 million; the final parcel was secured in 2010.
The Center’s café has served butter chicken curry made with Shiretoko chicken—a local twist on a familiar dish. Its limited food offerings also make use of ingredients from the area.
KINETOKO blends “Kinematograph” and “Shiretoko.” Its 20-by-12-metre screen shows original nature films in 4K with 5.1-channel sound, bringing the park’s wild landscapes into the Center.
The Shiretoko Foundation shop inside the Center is named コムヌプリ (Komunupuri), an Ainu name meaning “mountain where many acorns are found.” The name carries a wish for wildlife-rich Shiretoko to remain that way.
Furepe is said to mean “red water” in Ainu—yet when the falls froze in February 2022, an Environment Ministry ranger found them blue, with sea ice offshore and the snowy Shiretoko Range beyond.
The Center opened in 1988, and its predecessor cinema, DynaVision, passed 500,000 cumulative admissions by 1993. The giant-screen tradition was drawing crowds long before today’s KINETOKO films.
The Center shares a hard bear-safety lesson from a real case: after a tourist fed young female bear 97B-5 one sausage, she began associating people and cars with food. She later entered town and was killed near a school.
