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Toyako

Like Akan ko to the north, Toya ko is a beautiful caldera lake, nearly circular and about ten kilometers across. The lake is graced with four wooded islands, accessible by boat from the hot springs resort town of Toya Ko Onsen. Both the lake and the town are located within the Shikotsu-Toya National Park, just 80 kilometers south of Sapporo. Toya ko has a great deal to offer, and each summer the area is thronged with visitors.

The lake is geothermally active, and there are a number of onsen nearby, including of course Toya ko Onsen. Another result is that Toya ko is the northernmost lake in Japan to remain completely free of ice through the winter. From May to October, Toya Ko Onsen holds a fireworks display every night, the brilliant colors reflecting from the dark waters of the lake.

Not far from the onsen town, Usu-zan is a slightly hyperactive volcano, whose last major eruption in 2000 left the town covered in ash and forced a three-month evacuation of its people. The volcano is relatively calm at the moment, and braver visitors can ride a ropeway to the top for spectacular views.

On the flanks of Usu-zan, the smoking, treeless dome of Showa Shinzan began rising from a wheat field following earthquake activity in 1943. Within two years it had reached its present height of over 400 meters. An amateur volcanologist, Mimatsu Masao, charted Showa Shinzan’s growth and purchased the land the volcano sits on after World War II. It’s a remarkable if somewhat unnerving sight, and is best viewed from the Usu-zan ropeway.

Toya ko is a remarkable place, simultaneously showing both Hokkaido’s tremendous natural beauty and the powerful geological forces that continue to shape the land. And as the site for the G-8 Summit in 2008, Toya ko and the town of Toya Ko Onsen will soon have a chance to display their charms to the world.

■Date
Date is a name shared by two small Japanese cities and of one of Japan’s powerful feudal clans. The Date clan’s original center of power was around the present-day city of Date in northern Fukushima prefecture. In time, they came to rule over all of what is now Miyagi and southern Iwate prefectures. At the time of the Meiji restoration, however, the Date clan along with others feudal families was stripped not only of power but of their ancestral lands. The samurai of one branch of the family relocated to the wilds of Hokkaido to forge a new destiny for themselves. This is the origin of Hokkaido’s city of Date, one of only two cases in all Japan of two cities sharing a name.

In early August, Date holds a Samurai Festival to commemorate the arrival of the displaced settlers who founded the city. Colorfully illuminated floats and citizens dressed as samurai parade through the streets. The festival may not be worth a trip for its own sake, but stumbling on this kind of small, local celebration is a large part of the fun in traveling through Japan, especially during the summer months.

>>Access
Shinchitote Airport====(120 min. by bus)====Toyako
Sapporo====(160 min. by bus)====Toyako

Toyako====(35 min. by car)====Date

>>Website
Toyako Tourist Association(English)

-Matt Mangham

>> Hotels and Ryokans in near Toya-ko
>> Tours in Hokkaido