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.

Hokkaido – Four days in Akan National Park

It's really hard to imagine we've been back from Japan for two and a half months already. Time flies! When you're having fun, or when you're doing renos on the house. Anyway, better late than never.

The first segment of our trip was spent in the region of Akan National Park. We flew from Tokyo into Kushiro. From Kushiro we hitched a ride to our first stop at Kawayu Onsen Eki-mae (Kawayu Hot Spring Station, the small village just down the road from Kawayu Hot Spring proper.) From there we explored the Kawayu Onsen area, the Mount Io volcano, Lake Kussharo and Lake Mashu. Then we hitched a ride westward to the town of Akanko Onsen (Lake Akan Hot Spring) where we enjoyed the lake front, the Ainu folk village and Marimo (round lake algae) Museum.

Bears outside the Kushiro airport. We saw many warnings for
bears and lots of representations of bears, but no actual bears.

First of many decorative manhole covers seen on our
trip: here, the Kushiro wetlands.

The touristy parts of Kushiro and surrounds was filled with crane imagery.

A more generic Hokkaido manhole cover, with the famous
Aka-Renga (“Red Brick”) building of Sapporo.

Roadside greenery.

On our way to the road out of Kushiro.

An overgrown parking lot.

The Hotel Parkway and the steaming Io-zan behind.
You could always smell the sulphur.

We were amazed by all the “birch tree” telephone poles.

Lush green grass and flowers. After even only two months of dry,
brown winter, Hokkaido was a dream come true.

Abandoned school. (Kawayu-onsen Eki-mae had seen better days.)

We saw these amazingly huge butterbur plants everywhere!

Mashu National Highway 391.

First kitsune (fox) sighting.

Into the Green Leaf Tunnel.

Io-zan, Mount Io.

Approaching the volcanic vent.

The steam was so loud. And so, so smelly.

After all the tourists cleared out.

Back to the Hotel Parkway via the Green Leaf Tunnel.

Explaining a mountain.

Walking along the Tsutsujigahara Nature Trail

Looking back to Io-zan from the Tsutsujigahara Nature Trail.

Shira kanba – white birch.

Inside the Kawayu Onsen Eco Centre. (Please take note of the giant stuffed
Totoro, which is why I took this photo.)

A small shrine tucked behind some trees in Kawayu Onsen.

Water from the hot spring, running through the town.

Public foot bath!

Sumo ring and shrine torii gate on either side of the giant mizunara oak tree.
It is some 300 years old and some 21 metres tall (as best as I could read the sign next to it.)

Lupins taking over an abandoned parking lot.

Boats for hire on Lake Kussharo on a cold and windy day at Sunayu.
You can dig down to warm water through the sand at this beach.

No one was taking boats out today.

The absolutely idyllic rotemburo (open air hot spring) at Ainu Kotan
and the best way to thoroughly warm up on a cold day.

The road through Ainu Kotan village.

Green pastoral hills, Mashu-dake (Mount Mashu) in the distance.

Overlooking Lake Mashu, Mashu-dake across the clouds.

Looking out over a sea of clouds at the Lake Mashu tenbou-dai (lookout.)

As we began our hike, the clouds over Lake Mashu began to clear away.

Dappled sunlight through a grove of shira kanba

Sasa, a shorter relative of bamboo found all over Hokkaido,
covers the hills and rustles pleasantly in the breeze.

Green and blue as far as you can see.

The winding trail around Lake Mashu. Our destination is on the far left.

Scenic overlook of the lake. (Now our destination is on the far right.)

The breathtaking view of Mashu-ko from the peak of Mashu-dake, standing on the rim of the caldera.

Proof of the summit! We just happened to get lucky and there was another hiker at the top.

The smaller caldera of Mt Mashu inside the much larger caldera of Lake Mashu.

The view straight down from the peak into the caldera.

Tranquility over the lake.

All the clouds over the lake were long gone by the time we made it back around.

Akan town visitor and information Center. (Note the bear!)

Lake Akan Onsen,complete with marimo.

More butterbur.

This deer is sad because he can't eat the bark off the tree. Every tree
had deer fencing and every tree had a similar sign.

Some of the unique Ainu buildings in Lake Akan town.

The ferry on Lake Akan, sporting Ainu art and design.

I was so excited to see deer on our ferry ride on Lake Akan!
These were the only deer we saw on our trip.

Mount Meakan in the distance from Chuurui Island.

At the marimo (a type of round ball algae) museum.

Spectacular wooden carvings of owls at the Ainu Kotan art village.

Ainu Kotan art village architechture.

Yes, it is Do Not Touch but he is being very careful not to touch the bear.
(Also note the museum slippers.)

Hillside Shinto shrine in Akan.

One last evening view of Lake Akan before we head out the next morning.