Lake Toya, a pleasant two hour drive from Sapporo
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This beautiful lake Toya is one of the best places for enjoying
one day trip from Sapporo.
Especially in comfortable season, heading for Jozankei hot spring
resort, then driving farther to the south-west by way of Nakayama
mountain pass, is a good route to enjoy the great view of the rural
areas of mountains and farms full of greenery in the fresh air.
It’s about 2’15”drive from the center of Sapporo.
Lake Toya is one part of Shikotsu-Toya National park, covering
98,332 ha, known for its beauty of nature and good hot spring stretching
over 2 towns of Sobetsu and Toyako .
This is the 3rd biggest caldera lake in Japan, about 42 km around,
with 4 pretty islands in, the habitat of many kinds of birds, Hokkaido
deer and so on. To its south we find active volcano, Mt. Usu and
another impressive Mt. Showa. To its west, we can enjoy the view
of Mt. Yotei, nicknamed Mt. Fuji of Hokkaido. Around this lake is
Lake Toya hot spring resort, popular among the people for the beautiful
landscape, good hot spring, excellent food, for they can produce
good rice, vegetables, beans, fruits, and dairy products here besides
the tasty seafood from the Toyoura bay on the Pacific Ocean.
G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit Promotion (City of Sapporo)
 Lake
Toya, the venue of G8 Summit, 2008
Toyakoonsen
Tourist Association
A city with a national park
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| The fine view of Lake Toya from “Silo observatory”.
Around the lake, you find 58 great sculptures, to make your walking-tour
all the more entertaining. Especially on the sunny days, with the
background of the blue sky cobalt-blue lake, beautiful mountains,
it’s a lot of fun to enjoy the beauty of nature and art. |
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| Kan Yasuda“Ishinki” |
Igor·Mitoraj“Moonlight” |
| You can take the pleasure boat to visit the island. In Oshima island,
they have a souvenir shop and ” Forest Museum”.If you
have some time to spare, how about enjoying bird-watching over there
or just refreshing yourselves in the good atomosphere ? (Landing on
the island not available in winter)The boat cruises every 30 min.
If you prefer just enjoying the scenery from the boat, it’s
about 50 min’ cruise watching the view of the lake in every
season on TV screen, too) |
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At the foot of Mt. Showa, you find the statue of Masao
Mimatsu, working as the post office master, he devoted his life to
taking the record of the growth of a new active volcano, “Showa
new mountain(photo in the middle ), later he purchased this mountain
himself for not spoiling this precious monument.
Seagulls follow your cruise (right ) |
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| About 6min’ cable car ride takes you to the top of Mt. Usu,
where you can enjoy the panoramic view of its surroundings including
Lake Toya, Mt. Yotei. If you walk to the 2nd observatory by walking
about 5-10 minutes, you see the south of this area, Toyoura Bay, the
Pacific Ocean, or farther south of this area. Another trekking route
is found from here if you have much more time to spare. |
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| Destroyed factory seen from the trekking route of the natural disaster
museum, Nishiyama crater, near Lake Toya. This is one of the busiest
volcanic activity areas in Japan. |
Nishiyama crater, the natural disaster museum trekking route made
after the eruption of the year 2000, you still find the steam gushing
up high into the air from the ground. |
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| “Lake Hill Farm” along the route 230, known for its
tasty ice cream. |
Lake Toya hot spring resort at the sunset time. |
(Latest update: September, 2008) |
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