insights from frontier Japan

At the Daisetsuzan Nature School, we provide environmental education for local children. As I covered in my last article, we are putting together a list of 100 things that all kids in Hokkaido should experience. In this article, I’d like to explain two natural experiences that – during summer – draw people to Daisetsuzan National Park, located in the middle of Hokkaido: snowball fights and discovering Daisetsuzan “at the intersection of alpine flora.”

he Kushiro Wetland Nature Restoration Council has revised its ‘Canoeing Guidelines’ for enjoying the nature of the wetlands while canoeing down the Kushiro River. The guidelines provide information on areas where navigation is prohibited due to revetment work, and dangerous areas where there are frequent accidents, as well as re-emphasize consideration for nature.

On an intensely cold early morning measuring 20 degrees below zero on the thermometer, water vapor rose from holes in the ice surface on Eastern Hokkaido Lake Kussharo, covering the lakeside area in a frost mist.

At the Daisetsuzan Nature School, we provide environmental education for local children. We are putting together a list of 100 things that all kids in Hokkaido should experience. These experiences are not just fun outdoor activities, but also those we adults think would help develop an understanding of our environment. Understanding the environment and how our actions affect it, is key for us to live sustainably for generations to come.

The green color of trees reflects on the surface of Lake Kussharo (Teshikaga Town in the Eastern Hokkaido Kushiro region), but the atmosphere of autumn has touched this area as well. At the lakeside, I encountered a crested kingfisher, a bird known for the crested plumage atop its head. The crested kingfisher is immensely cautious, so getting close to the bird is difficult. They establish territories at mountain streams and lakes and live there, but they rarely ever show themselves. They can be identified by a high-pitched chirping sound generated while flying, which can be heard over long distances. When it found a perching tree for hunting the fish it feeds on, I hid myself in a slightly removed spot so as not to stand out, and waited.

Lake Kussharo, which is located in the Akan-Mashu National Park (in the town of Teshikaga in the Kushiro region) and is the largest caldera lake in Japan, will reach a major turning point on October 1. In principle, the personal use of powered boats such as motorboats and jet skis will be prohibited on the whole of the lake, which has a circumference of 57 km. Unless specifically authorized, navigating the lake in such a manner will be punishable under the Natural Parks Act.

Volcanic smoke rises vigorously from Atosanupuri (Mt. Iou) in the town of Teshikaga in eastern Hokkaido. On September 16, with the help of a local guide, we climbed the mountain – the focal point of Akan-Mashu National Park and what is said to be the source of the Kawayu Onsen hot springs – to photograph the volcanic crater using a drone. The beautiful lemon-yellow fumarole was visible from the drone.

Pretty, white spherical flowers sway in the breeze as the peak of the rhododendron season approaches in the Tsutsujigahara meadow that stretches from Atosanupri (Mt. Io) to Kawayu Onsen in the town of Teshikaga in eastern Hokkaido.

An accommodation facility that was closed in the Kawayu Onsen hot-spring resort (in the town of Teshikaga, eastern Hokkaido) reopened as ‘Kinkiyu Hotel Bettei SUIKAZURA’ on April 20. The luxury hotel features guestrooms with their own hot-spring baths. Meanwhile, a woman in her 20s opened ‘NOMY’, a low-cost guesthouse in the Kawayu area on the 16th, and the town hopes the newly opened facilities will help revitalize the hot-spring resort, which has suffered badly during the Coronavirus pandemic.