Lake Shikotsu and Mt Tarumae

Once again Fiona and I have gone nonstop all week and I've fallen behind on documenting our adventures. The weather has been great - warm, but not hot, with lots of sunshine - and we have taken full advantage.

Wednesday we took the subway to Shin-Sapporo station where were transferred to a bus that took us to beautiful Lake Shikotsu - a caldera lake in a particularly geologically FASCINATING part of Shikotsu-Toya National Park.

We decided it would be easiest to get the lay of the land from the water, so our first stop was to rent a boat. I was hoping for a kayak, but Fiona was more than happy to settle for this much slower moving, but more interesting to look at ride:

From the lake we had great views of the three surrounding volcanos. Mt Eniwa to the northwest...

...and Mt. Fuppushi and Mt. Tarumae to the southeast.

The water was amazingly clear and a beautiful blue/green color. Lake Shikotsu is the second deepest lake in Japan as well as the second largest caldera lake. It is so deep that the water temperature remains relatively constant all year and it is the northern most ice-free lake in Japan. This is hard to imagine given the long, harsh Hokkaido winters!

After pedaling ourselves around for our allotted 30 minutes, we were happy to return our swan friend in favor of continuing our explorations on foot.

This old railway bridge which was actually built in England was retired from a nearby rail line and now ferries pedestrians to a small rocky shoreline along the lake.

Fiona wasted no time changing into her swimsuit and entertaining her self with sticks and rocks for hours while I read my book and enjoyed the sun. It was really an idyllic afternoon.

Once she'd had her fill of playing by the lake, we packed up and made our way to the Lake Shikotsu Visitor's Center which actually turned out to be more of a museum full of detailed information on the area. On our way, as we were crossing the bridge, we heard lots of splashing in the water below.

Initially when we looked down we couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from...

...but as we looked closer, we we realized that there were dozens of fish all trying to cram themselves into the same small area resulting in lots of thrashing about. Despite watching them for a good ten minutes, we never did figure out what the draw was to that particular spot.

On our way past the visitor's center earlier in the day, Fiona had spotted some stuffed bears in the museum area and was dying to go check them out and see what other animals were inside. I was less than thrilled about spending part of a beautiful day inside a random museum, but I owe my daughter a big thank you because, as it turned out, the center was impressively well organized with a wealth of information provided in a number of different languages.

Here's what we learned that I found so fascinating. Lake Shikoku, as I mentioned before, is a caldera lake - a lake cauldron-like depression that forms following the evacuation of a magma chamber. So the lake itself sits on top of the site of a volcanic eruption. Since that eruption, the shape of the lake has been altered from its once circular shape by successive additional eruptions on it's shore line - first the eruption that led to the formation of Mt. Eniwa on its northwestern shore and later by the eruptions that led to the formation of Mt. Fuppushi and more recently Mt. Tarumae on its southeastern shore.

This panoramic of the lake shows (on the distant shore line) from left to right Mt Tarumae and Mt Fuppushi and then Mt. Eniwa.

In this zoom in to the left side of the above panoramic you can see the flat topped risen feature at the center of Mt Tarumae - it's still active lava dome.

What you can't really tell from individual pictures of these volcanic mountains, or really even by standing on the shore of the lake, is that the all lie in a perfectly straight line along a crack in the earth's crust. Looking at this map shown in the visitor's center it was amazing to see how aligned they all are!

The other interesting bit we learned in the visitors center was the order in which the three have erupted (Mt. Eniwa, Mt. Fuppushi, Mt. Tarumae). Discovering this immediately answered the question we'd been wondering about all day: in an area where every inch of land is covered by thick, thick forests, why does Mt. Fuppushi have barren spots and Mt. Tarumae look like the face of the moon? Turns out that Mt Eniwa (the most thickly forested) has been dormant the longest, followed by Mt. Fuppushi which is releatively thickly forested with the exception of long streams of past lava flows. Finally, Mt. Tarumae looks like the face of the moon because it's still active (its most recent eruption was in 1981, but even today it ranks among one of Japan's most active volcanos and is under constant monitoring) and the sulfur levels in the soil make it impossible the support much plant life.

We also discovered - much to both our excitement - that it is possible to hike to the lava dome atop Mt. Tarumae. Unfortunately, the we also found out that the trailhead wasn't accessible by public transportation. We were bummed!

After we were thoroughly educated on the area, we headed back to the lake to enjoy dinner with a view. Fiona finally got to try one of the most popular street vendor foods in Hokkaido - grilled corn on the cob.

As luck would have it, the corn did the trick in finally loosening up the wiggly tooth that's been hanging on ever since we arrived here!

And after dinner, we took one more walk by the lake before catching the last bus back to Sapporo.

The entire way home, we kept talking about how cool it would have been to hike to a volcano dome and for the whole next day we kept coming back to how much we wished we could have seen it up close. Yesterday, the temptation became too much. On a whim, we walked over to the car rental spot across the street to see if they had any cars available for the day. Fiona actually whooped with joy when we were told there was one. An hour later, we were on our way back to hike Mt Tarumae.

The day wasn't nearly as bright and sunny as our visit to the area two days earlier. In fact, I was worried when we pulled into the parking lot. It was raining, and the top of the mountain wasn't even visible through the clouds. I began to worry if we might have been too spontaneous...

Not to be deterred, we signed in to the hiker's log at the trail head (this is brilliant by the way, why haven't I seen it in the US?..it's a log book where your note your party's name, number of people, and time you began and finished the hike as a small safety measure).

Then we took off up the mountain. This is a known bear area, so we were practicing our bear safety that we were taught by a ranger in Glacier National Park last summer. The main idea was that we should always let the bears know we're in the area because most of time bear attacks occur when a bear is surprised by quite hikers coming around a corner. She used the analogy that the forest is the bear's house and just like we expect someone to ring our doorbell before walking in unannounced, we should extend the bears the same courtesy. I was periodically shouting things like, "Knock, knock bears! Hikers coming through!" But Fiona was concerned the bears in Japan likely didn't speak English so she switched to, "Sumimasen, konnichiwa!" (Excuse me, hello!).

Luck seemed to be on our side, because just as we passed through the tree line, the rain stopped and the clouds seemed to lift a bit. I was absolutely okay with the view I turned around to! And as an added bonus, the cooler, damp weather seemed to tamp down the bugs significantly, making this a hike gloriously free of complaining about bugs.

The trees may have ended ten minutes into the hike, but the trail just keep going up, up, up.

As we went up, the view behind us was to Lake Shikotsu...

...and eventually out over the Pacific Ocean. It felt a lot like being at the edge of the earth.

After about 40 minutes, we made it to the crater rim.

The trail up the mountain formed a T here with another trail which completely circumvents the crater rim allowing you to walk all the way around if you have another two hours to spend at the top. We had evening plans we needed to get back for, so an entire rim walk was out, but we did turn right and proceed to the highest point on the mountain (aside from the lava dome itself).

It was another steep climb to the lookout:

But definitely worth the effort!

In addition to the lava dome itself, there were more specatacular views of Lake Shikotsu:

Despite the fact that there were clear trails running into the crater, there were numerous warnings about not leaving the rim trail. This volcano is still so active that the fumes near the lava dome itself are toxic and deadly. The lava dome has been growing steadily upward since 1909 and at some point surpassed the previously highest point on Mt. Tarumae which is still indicated as the summit.

Fiona said, "Mommy, take my picture with a volcano!!"

I love this picture - atop an active volcano with a lava dome on the left, dormant Mt Fuppushi ahead, and Lake Shikotsu and the Pacific Ocean to the right.

One more quick selfie with the lava dome.

Waaaay down in the trees just below the big puffy cloud we spotted our car in the parking log. In this picture the lot just looks like a little white dot among the trees.

Farewell Mt. Tarumae; you certainly did not disappoint!

The views on the way down were just as good as they were on the way up!

Almost exactly two hours after we signed it to the hike, we logged out.

Mission tackle a volcano - SUCCESS!

Across the parking lot we spotted a bell. Thinking it was possibly a celebratory bell to mark a successful hike, I told Fiona she could ring it. Thankfully it was pretty old and rusty and it took quite a bit of effort for her to get it to chime once, because when I got home and translated the sign below it, I discovered it was for hikers in distress! Oops!

As we got into the car to leave, we looked up at the mountain only to discover that it was completely hidden in the clouds. We were so thankful for the fortuitous timing of our trip!

I am proud to report that we also successfully returned the car to the rental shop incident free. It's been nearly a decade since I drove on the left hand side of the road in England, we took it slow and it wasn't too bad!

When we got back to the apartment, Fiona checked the mail (as she does daily, often multiple times). She was SO excited to find a letter inside from Grandma.

As if our day hadn't already been exciting enough, we had to hurry to eat dinner and get Fiona into her pjs so we'd be ready for the fireworks show being put on a couple blocks from our apartment. Fiona has been looking forward to this all week. As a special treat, our apartment building even opened up the roof for viewing and the show was one of the most impressive I've ever seen!

The only part of the display more impressive than the fireworks themselves? The fact that it was advertised that the show would take place from 7:40PM to 8:30PM and, I am not exaggerating even a little bit when I say we heard the first boom at precisely 7:40PM and watched the last sparkles disappear from the sky just as the time rolled over from 8:30PM to 8:30PM. The punctuality here is unheard of in the US. I love it!