The forth day. I woke up little bit late, but took pictures of sunrise at the beach in front of the hotel. Here is the place you can greet with different morning depending on your feeling of the day.

I headed to Iwaobetsu area again after eating breakfast in my car. I tried to look into the back forest of the Puyuni cape. I saw the bear we saw the day before. Many photographers were gathering from early morning at the road along the Iwaobetsu river. They were coming from Japan’s main island. Big lenses were lined up.

I didn’t want to take pictures which is the same as everyone else, so I left there. Then, I saw again the big black thing at the riverside with rocks of the same size. It was the 6th bear I saw from the day before. The bear climbed the big rock and went away to the mountain. I know you don’t like the place with many people. I also keep from media if they are around my neighborhood.

Well, I started my car again, and turned a curve in several meters away, then another black big body was there!! I didn’t expect to meet two bears for this several minutes and was surprised.

Then, a car came down to the place. It was crews of Fuji TV I met the day before. The bear went away. “This is the 7th bear I saw from yesterday!” They were surprised. “The bear will appear again!” I said, turned around, and waited for the bear parking with the crew’s car. As I expected, the bear appeared after several minutes. It got across the road seeing right and left. Very human movement! I couldn’t stop smiling.

The bear was looking for food while drinking water on the river and going around the riverside. The hair was shining with water. I released the shutter many times. A small car, which was from outside of Hokkaido, came, and a photographer got off with his camera with 300m lens. I thought like “Don’t !”, but he got close to the bear. His sudden movement was wrong. The bear went away.

He didn’t know how to get close to animals. He was interviewed by the TV crews and said it was the first time. I think Shiretoko needs to have a gate to give lectures to them. They need to make a rule like not to get off the car, same as the national park in Alaska. About 10 minutes after its appearance, the bear went away.

I took a rest checking pictures I took. Not bad. It was cold morning and warmed myself at pool of sunlight. I met a local lady, and “Are you waiting for a bear? He was there.”, said to me.

I saw a bear walking after turning the curve. Then, a patrol car from Shiretoko financial group appeared with harsh braking. They are searching bears asked by Ministry of the Environment. One staff got off and started chasing the bear away because it was too close to the road. There was another reason that to avoid tourists to mess around. There was an article to introduce this area as a cycling corse with a cautionary statement like “Be careful not to gather speed as a bear might appear around the corner”. Here is the place I saw 3 bears in only an hour. This is an example they are ignoring the nature fact. Anyway, the chased bear was with wondering look.

The bear in fact doesn’t cause troubles, just was surprised and couldn’t go back to the forest (although it was a road in the forest). Finally, the staff did throw 2 firecrackers to the bear. The booming roar echoed in the valley. The bear started moving in several steps but soon stopped again. Go back to the forest, otherwise the staff with a baton gun will take you.. After a while, the bear go back to the forest.

This is the fact of Shiretoko. I feel it’s human’s ego even though we insist “coexistence with bear”. To let bears learn using firecrackers and baton guns is human’s arrogance. Human should learn and not bears. Those who doesn’t want to learn should not enter from the gate. I think this way would work more for both human and bears safety. If we say human is more cleaver than bears.

I felt disappointed after this happening. I felt sorry for bears. Their faces as if saying “what are you doing to me? I haven’t done anything wrong”, burned into my brain.

Then, I left Shiretoko after taking some pictures in the forest. It was thoughtful 4 days. I found a gaggle of wild geese flying to the south on my way back home. I got off from my car and took a pass on them. The snow season is almost coming.