Hokkaido – Daisetsuzan

Asahidake, the highest peak in Hokkaido.

I have been meaning to post this for some time now—according to Reid it is too late to be putting photos from our trip in July up now at the end of December, but I am determined to chronicle our entire trip, if only for the purpose of sharing the amazing rocks of Asahidake. (Apologies in advance for all the rocks in this post.)

When we left off here, we had just had a couple days in the Akan National Park area. Our next destination was Mount Asahidake in the Daisetsuzan Volcanic Group. From Akan Hot Spring we took a bus up and around the mountains in the center of Hokkaido to Asahikawa. It was a pretty uneventful bus ride, but with wifi and movies playing (in particular, “Samurai Cat”, a samurai movie that happens to involve rival gangs kidnapping a white cat. This was a serious drama. There was also a lumberjack movie which, despite attempts to google, I have not been able to identify. Mind you, there were no of course subtitles and yet somehow no soundtracks to these movies (and even if there were sound, it'd be a little beyond our language skills) so we mostly read and looked out the window.)

Most of what we saw of rural Hokkaido looks like this: cultivated
valleys between verdant hills, a highway running through it.

Unfortunately, the bus windows were really grimy so I
didn't take many photos on the first leg of the trip.

Amazing  cliffs around Sounkyou (would have liked to have been
able to see them a little better.. next time we're going to stop here!
The Google street view is amazing.)

First views of the Daisetsuzan Mountain group as we
approach the city of Asahikawa

Asahikawa was a short layover at the local craft brewery followed by mango ice cream. (This was very successful marketing. We had seen a TV special about the making of the 7-Eleven mango popsicle a couple nights before. It was so good the woman in the special cried! So of course we had to try it. Unfortunately, they were sold out at 7-Eleven so we had to settle for Seicomart brand ice cream cones.) It was the warmest day of our holiday thus far and really felt like summer! I was also happy to switch buses (and into a bus with cleaner windows.)

Rice fields around Asahikawa (the area is known for sake breweries)

Bridge over the rice fields

Although we would have liked to have stayed much longer (of course), we only had one full day in the Daisetsuzan area: one day to climb Asahidake. We started first thing the following morning and would have caught the first tram to the trailhead, except for the 30-odd school kids who had arrived just before us so we missed the first ride up to the second visitor's center. (You can skip the tram and hike the first part of the mountain, but it adds some three hours each way to the trip which we had decided not to do.)

Walking up the road to the Asahidake main (vehicle accessible) visitor center.

View from the tram ride going up! There was a cheesy tourist video that
played in the car, which seemed a bit silly when you looked out the window.

First view of Mt Asahidake after the tram (the peak is not really visible from
the first visitor's center)

After the first walk up to the main glacial pool and volcanic vents area

Beginning the climb.

Volcanic rock

The views from the climb were astounding

... still a long way to go.

One of the most incredible parts of the climb was turning around to see the valley below.

Amazing colors of the volcano

The barren rock we climbed was such a contrast to the beautiful blue and green behind us.

Stopping for a quick breather, just before the summit, we admired these boulders

At the peak! Looking down.

Views of the surrounds from the peak: other mountains of the Daisetsuzan group

At the summit marker, 2,290 m. (I had to have my hat under
my hood because it was incredibly windy!)

Looking down the ridge we climbed up

Standing near those boulders for scale. Funny to think they were thrown there.

As we descended, the school group was coming up. Ganbatte~~ (do your best!)

After we descended the peak, we took a break for some ice cream (honeydew melon—it was so good, the best we had on our trip) before doing another small walk around the upper visitor's center. There were lots of wildflowers, streams of mountain runoff and lakes, snow banks, and of course stellar views of the mountain we'd just climbed to keep us occupied for much of the rest of the afternoon.

Alpine wildflowers

Still a bit of snow here and there, even though it was hot in the sun out of the wind.

Field of wildflowers

A rocky, narrow path

Back to the amazing Lodge Nutapukaushippe, where we stayed.

Overall, it was an amazing climb—really difficult, especially for flat-landers like me, but it was equally rewarding. And it sure was nice to relax in the onsen after that rigorous trek. I'd love to go back and do more of the hikes in the area! There are many other trails and loops that we didn't have time to explore. Even though it was only one day it was one of the highlights of our trip. I'd go back in a heartbeat.