Monbetsudake (866m), Shikotsu-ko, Hokkaido
The Shikotsu-Toya National Park lies just south of Sapporro, the main city of Hokkaido. It's actually made up of two separate areas, one around Lake Toya (Toya-ko) to the west, and the other around Lake Shikotsu (Shikotsu-ko). We travelled there by bus from Sapporo-Chitose (where the airport is situated) after travelling by train from Sounkyo.
Arriving at Shikotsu Kohan - a lakeside settlement with bus stop and shops - we were met by our host from the Lapland guest house. He told us we could look around for 3 hours and he'd pick us up at 5.20.
First we found a National Park Visitor Centre at least as impressive as the excellent facility at Sounkyo. The lofty timber building housed exhibitions of natural history and the geological history of the area. A tourist leaflet enticed us with the title "Handy Guide", but these were the only recognisable words in it. However, it contained a handy series of illustrations of the creation and collapse of a vast volcano, forming the caldera lake of Shikotsu-ko, and pictures of wildlife and scenery. A map indicated the main peaks around the lake, and a larger version on the wall of the visitor centre gave us the names in Roman script. There was a much more detailed walking map available for 2000 yen - another in the "Attack" series - and I bought it. The pack included an attractive and detailed booklet describing a range of walks, but it was entirely in Japanese.
Then we looked around the nondescript block of souvenir shops, and walked down to the lakeside where we each had hot coffee from cans, looking out at a flotilla of large painted swan-shaped boats moored close to the shore. A small lake cruiser was taking people for trips, and quite a number of tourists were around as it was a Sunday.
Catriona thought we should climb a hill, or at least stretch our legs, as we had two hours still to spare! It was a bit misty, but after inspecting the map we knew there was a peak at 865m just about 3 miles or 5 km north of the village, reached by a winding track. If we had understood the map a little better, we would have realised that the numbers indicated it ought to take 1hr 35 mins to climb up, and 1hr 20 mins to descend back to the main road - i.e. almost 3 hours in all.
We set off at 3.30 and followed the main road north-west from the car park for about 300 yards, over a rise. We found the access road a bit awkwardly - a short road on the right where the main road bent left downhill. Then we climbed some steps between abandoned buildings, to join a narrow road heading to the right through trees. We walked along to a barrier which indicated the road was "NTT" and suggested no walkers! However, it was in a National Park and marked as a route on the map, so we thought we'd be OK. We edged round the barrier and headed on - at a good pace to see how far we could get, even though we weren't wearing proper footwear.
There wasn't much view through the trees on either side, just the occasional glimpse of the lake or the next hill. We heard the sound of a motor, and thought it must be a motor cyclist coming up to reprimand us for trespassing, but he never appeared, and it must have been the motor cruiser on the lake.
It was still a tarmac roadway, and periodically we passed poles at the side with two numbers on the top. We worked out that they must be the distances from the start and to the top - 4884m in total - and by the time we reached halfway calculated that it might just be possible to achieve our target of reaching the top by 4.30. At the 3000m mark we dumped our rucksacks and dashed up the last mile or so, heading into the mist as the road bent all the way round the hill to reach the summit (just like Dundee Law, for those who know it!). The forest cloaked the entire hill apart from the very summit. And we made it just in time!
Emerging from the mist was a collection of communications masts, and a solder was sitting lazily in a jeep with a leg sticking out. He didn't acknowledge us. We went up to the highest bit, next to a pylon, and took photos of the inside of the cloud! Certainly it would be a wonderful view on a clear day.
Then we dashed down, running some of it, hardly pausing except when we glimpsed a large dark woodpecker on the lower stretch. We were back down in 35 minutes, with time to go for ice cream before meeting our host.
After the walk - an onsen (hot bath) and a super meal
Two other guests from Taiwan (Cindy and Joe) and a Japanese woman (Hiromi) turned up, and we were all taken to a nearby hotel for an onsen. It was my first opportunity to soak in a hot bath outside - a rotenburo - and chat with Joe.
Then we were all driven off south to Morappu, a smaller lakeside collection of tourist facilities - camp site, shops, and our timber guest house, "Lapland". It looked like it wouldn't have been out of place in Finland.
Inside, we were reminded to remove our shoes and were shown our rooms, before enjoying a wonderful meal of salmon and vegetables cooked in an enormous electric frying pan at the low wooden table by our host Ishida Kazuhiko and his wife. All that was eaten with chopsticks, accompanied by rice and sauce, then followed by bacon and more vegetables.
A very convivial evening was enjoyed by the seven of us, with the conversation mixing Japanese and English, explaining everyone's work and getting ideas for the next day's excursions. Many experiences crammed into a few hours!
< Back to Japan page for links to other stories
Comments
Join Walking Stories for free to comment on this story. Have an account already? Log in to comment.
