Going North to Wakkanai Japan (part 3)

 This is part 3, the last day of this adventure.

The last day and it's raining. After everyone checked out of the hotel we boarded the tour bus and drove to a local Michi-no-eki (roadside station that sells local products). 

This was everyone's last chance to buy things and have them shipped home. This place has a lot of seafood. 

If you buy it the store will pack it in a cooler with dry ice and ship it quickly to your house.  

So many things to chose from.

They even have local sake to buy.

I didn't want to buy anything so I walked across the street to where the fishing trawlers were moored.

These trawlers go far out in the ocean in search of fish.

After leaving the Michi-no-eki we drove for over an hour to get to Cape Soya (Soya Misaki) the Northern most point in Japan. This is what everyone had been waiting 3 days for.

However, there was something equally important to me, I wanted to see the Flight KAL-007  Memorial. While everyone was taking pictures of each other in front of the Nort Point Monument Emi and I walked up the hill on the other side of the street to find the KAL-007 Memorial. 

The view of Cape Soya from the hill top.

And, this is the view of the bus parking lot. We're the only tour group here. I hear this place is very busy in the Summer. 

This is the Cape Soya Lighthouse.

This is the KAL-007 Memorial. 

This commemorates the shooting down of the Korean Airlines flight 007 on 1 September 1983. It happened north of Moneron Island west of Sakhalin Island but this is the closest point to there, outside of Russia.

Link to the Wiki page with detailed information on the KAL-007

There's a lot of water on the ground from the heavy rainfall. Strangely, the rain stopped when we reached the memorial. One of the biggest reasons that I wanted to see this memorial is because I was stationed on the USS Conserver ARS-39 at that time and the Conserver was part of the search effort to find the downed KAL-007. 

After paying our respects Emi and I returned to the "Northernmost Point In Japan" and did what the rest of our tour group had already done...

We took pictures of each other 😊

Look at me!

Here's our bus parked next to the Northernmost Public Rest Room In Japan!

We also took turns taking pictures of ourselves in front of the gift shop/restaurant.

Don't ask me why, I just do what I'm told.

Last look back as we leave Cape Soya and head for the Airport.

Wakkanai Airport is small but it's clean and comfortable. This is the departure gate area.

Taking a picture through the window. The only thing that separates the ocean from the runway is a street that runs along the beach.

Here comes our plane.

The black bar in the center of the picture is part of the window frame.

The last picture of this amazing adventure: Our plane is at the gate and soon we'll be boarding it for our flight home.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mike

Bonus shots!