Passage du Pacifique et joyaux cachés du Japon

The humble beginnings of the City of Vancouver, in the settlement of Gastown on Burrard Inlet, rose out of the old growth forests and the sawdust of the old Hastings Mill. Its location between the Pacific Ocean and the snow-capped coastal mountains creates one of the most idyllic settings of any city in the world. As a world-class city it has the best of both worlds, intermingling urban sophistication with a sense of wilderness and outdoor adventure. Whether you are exploring Vancouver’s diverse downtown core, strolling through the giant trees of Stanley Park or taking in the 20 miles (30 km) of uninterrupted waterfront trails along the seawall, you are bound to fall in love with Canada’s third largest metropolitan center, which is consistently ranked as one of most livable cities on earth. In 1886, the Canadian Pacific Railway reached Vancouver, completing Canada’s ‘National Dream’ of a connection between east and west, and opening up new trade routes between Asia and Europe. The city was named for British captain and explorer George Vancouver.

Le goulet de Seymour est un tronçon de 3 miles/5 km du Discovery Channel au nord de lîle de Vancouver, en Colombie-Britannique, qui est réputé pour la force des courants de marée qui le traversent. La largeur moyenne du goulet nest que de 750 mètres. Lors des marées extrêmes, le courant qui traverse le goulet est soumis à un important effet Venturi, ce qui se traduit par une vitesse accrue pouvant atteindre 15 nœuds. Pendant la majeure partie de son histoire moderne, le détroit présentait un danger supplémentaire, le Ripple Rock, une obstruction peu profonde qui a coûté la vie à pas moins de 119 navires et 114 personnes. En 1958, après des mois de creusement de tunnels et de préparation, Ripple Rock a été soufflé lors de la plus grande explosion commerciale non nucléaire jamais enregistrée en Amérique du Nord. La navigation dans le goulet de Seymour dépend toujours des marées et dautres conditions, et exige des compétences et des prouesses techniques.

Le détroit de la Reine-Charlotte se situe entre le détroit de la Reine-Charlotte, qui serpente entre lîle de Vancouver et la partie continentale de la Colombie-Britannique au sud, et le détroit dHécate, qui se trouve au nord, à côté des îles Haida Gwaii, au large de la côte pacifique de la Colombie-Britannique. Il sagit dun large tronçon de la longue route maritime appelée Inside Passage, qui traverse la myriade dîles sétendant de Puget Sound, dans lÉtat de Washington, jusquà lAlaska.

Ketchikan is a picturesque coastal town with a colorful frontier history, standing at the southern entrance to Alaska’s famed Inside Passage. It began as a salmon cannery in 1885, built by company employee Mike Martin at the mouth of Ketchikan Creek. Once dubbed the ‘Canned Salmon Capital of the World,’ today government, commercial fishing, and tourism are its main industries. The renowned Creek Street, perched on stilts along the mouth of the creek, would bring lasting infamy to the area for the red-light district that burgeoned there during the Gold Rush. The town’s site first served as a camp for Tlingit people, and for thousands of years this has been their home. Their rich culture is being preserved to this day. A visit to Ketchikan is not complete without visiting one or all of Native American sites such as Totem Bight State Park, Potlatch Park, Saxman Native Village and the Totem Heritage Center. Together, these locations comprise the world’s largest collection of standing Native American totem poles. VIEW CRUISES

Une promenade dans les rues et le parc historique national de Sitka permet d’avoir un aperçu de son passé unique et coloré. Un mélange de cultures tlingit et russe définit cette première capitale de l’Alaska. Bien que la mise en conserve du poisson et l’extraction de l’or aient été les premiers catalyseurs de la croissance de Sitka, la construction d’une base aérienne pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale a véritablement ouvert la voie à l’essor de Sitka. L’une des structures les plus intrigantes de Sitka est la cathédrale Saint-Michel, construite en 1848 en l’honneur d’un évêque orthodoxe russe. L’histoire de Sitka commence il y a des milliers d’années avec le peuple Tlingit et son utilisation de la terre pour la subsistance et la spiritualité. L’ancienne Sitka, située juste au nord de l’actuelle colonie, a été fondée en 1799 par Alexander Baranov, commerçant de la Compagnie russo-américaine. D’abord appelée Novo-Arkhangelsk (Nouvel Archange) sous la domination russe, elle a été rebaptisée Sitka après l’achat de l’Alaska par les États-Unis en 1867. Sitka est un mot tlingit qui signifie « au bord de la mer ».

The largest of the Aleutian Islands, Kodiak is also Alaska’s largest island the second largest in the United States. Although occupied by native people for some 7,000 years, it languished in relative obscurity until the Second World War, when it housed as many as 25,000 troops. Fort Abercrombie, once the major center of North Pacific operations, today is a State Historic Park and a good place to learn the history. At the other end of the road system is the United States Coast Guard’s largest base, with a fleet of orange and white watercraft and aircraft that serves the Alaskan fishing fleet and other shipping and maritime activities in the Pacific area. Kodiak harbor is seasonally home to a fleet of some 650 fishing vessels, including huge trawlers, long-line and crab boats. Fishing is also a popular draw for visitors, but they also are attracted by opportunities to view and photograph local birds and wildlife, including the island’s massive brown bears, the males of which weigh as much as 1,500 pounds and stand ten feet tall. In the town, the fur warehouse originally built by the Russian American Company in 1808 is now the Baranov Museum, the oldest standing building in Alaska.
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Blessed by a protective range of mountains and a relatively warm ocean current, Kushiro gets less than a third of the winter snow of its Hokkaido neighbor Sapporo, and twice as much sunshine as the nearby Kuril Islands. Thus it is an important reliably ice-free port during the winter. Like all of Japan, it is riddled with semi-active geothermal features and occasionally rattled by tremors. Scenic Lake Akan is ringed by hot springs. It also has an Ainu Koten museum with a replica village and folklore performances of the indigenous Hokkaido people. The Japanese Crane Reserve is a good place to see breeding populations of these large and graceful birds, so respected by the Japanese. The city encompasses Japan’s largest wetland, and the Kushiro City Marsh Observatory has a boardwalk to see it, as well as the Fureai Horse Park which offers equestrian tours into the forest.

Miyako Island is 300 km south of Okinawa island, and is famous for its beaches, said to be Japan’s most beautiful. Maehama beach is for swimmers, while Yoshino has great coral reefs for snorkelers and the white-sand Sunayama has dramatic rock formations. Cape Higashi-Hennazaki is a long, narrow cape with the picturesque lighthouse at the end. The city’s Botanical Garden boasts over 1600 tropical varieties. Nakasone Tuyumya was an important leader of Miyako and the Okinawan people in the 16th century. Near the port in Hirara is memorial to him and his descendants, a designated national cultural asset. At the island’s north end, the graceful Ikema Ohashi bridge leads to the small Ikema Island.

L’arrondissement de Shimizu, vaste et semi-rural, est dominé par des montagnes côtières boisées, avec des sentiers de randonnée et des promenades en téléphérique vers des points de vue spectaculaires au-dessus de la baie de Suruga. Le Miho Beach Park est très apprécié pour la baignade et les sports nautiques en été, et il y a des terrains de baseball et de football à proximité, ainsi qu’un aquarium au Marine Science Center (Centre des sciences de la mer). Des pêcheries très actives approvisionnent les bars à sushis et les marchés de fruits de mer en spécialités locales telles que les crevettes sakura.