At the Toya train station. Toya was the site of the 2008 G8 summit.
The day started off on a good foot. I managed to catch the right bus without much problem, and got off at the stop where I thought you could start hiking up Usu-zan (Mt. Usu), a 729m volcano and erupted recently in March 2000. Well unfortunately, I had no clue where the trailhead was located (or if it even existed), because the tourist information office wasn't located at the train station like it usually is (it was located in the onsen town beside the lake about 15-20 minutes by bus from the station). But the Nishiyama Crater Promenade was located at the stop, so I decided to check it out first. It's a 1.3 km stretch of the remains of the town that was destroyed by the March 2000 eruption, so that visitors can see the effects and aftermath of a volcanic eruption on human dwellings. It was an easy walk and quite interesting.
Along the Nishiyama Crater Promenade. As you can see, some spots are still smoking.
Then the day went sideways from here. At the bus stop, besides the "promenade", there were 2 other dirt paths that led uphill. I had no clue where either one led, though both seemed to go in the direction of Usu-zan. My gut told me to follow the path to the left. Wrong choice. I wasted a good 30-45 minutes getting to the top and coming back down the path. At the top was a car park/sightseeing point of Lake Toya, where the guy who owned the property was charging 1000 yen just so visitors could have the opportunity to take a picture of the lake, and I wasn't paying for something I knew I could see for free from somewhere else.
A random lone abandoned building I stumbled upon on a tiny path leading off the main path to the car park at the top.
When I got back to the bus stop, I contemplated going up the other dirt path. My gut told me yes, but my mind said why waste more time on an unknown trail (I was running short on daylight for hiking because it was about 3PM by then). So I decided against going up the trail - I was now 0 for 2 for following my gut...but more on that later.
So instead of waiting for the infrequent bus to take me to the onsen town, I decided to walk it along the only road leading to the town (the bus schedule showed it was only a few minutes between the 2 stops so I figured it couldn't be too long of a walk - it ended up being only 15 minutes). This ended up being a decent choice, I got some great views of Lake Toya.
Along the road to the Toya onsen town. As you can tell, the view of the lake was great even though it wasn't from a sightseeing spot.
I finally got to the tourist information office and picked up a map of hiking trails in the area. There were a couple to choose from, but with only a few hours left of daylight, I decided to go with the one closest to the office...the trailhead was a mere 100m away. It was an easy hike, there wasn't much to see except a pond left behind by the volcanic eruption. The hike up to view the lake was actually kind of danger - it was a bit steeper than a 45 degree slope on muddy ground and nothing much to cling too (and I didn't buy a hiking stick before I left Toronto).
Along the trail. There were some buildings left behind from the volcanic eruption along the path for visitors to see.
The walk up to the pond and the pond itself.
As I neared the end of the trail, I had a feeling I was going to be kicking myself when I got to the end. And wouldn't you know it...the end of the trail was the 2nd dirt path at the bus stop I first arrived. If only I had followed my gut the 2nd time and walked the trail backwards, I could have gotten into town and probably had time for a 2nd hike (there was 2 hour trail also relatively nearby the tourist office). So instead, I now had to waste more time going back into town along the same road I had walked before, and I probably would have no time left for a second hike. Well I didn't - because I decided to take a little detour. There was a lone pavilion-type structure on the top of a hill along the road that I had passed by the first time, and this second time, it looked even more interesting (because it was so randomly situated), and so I followed my gut feeling to get to the top of the hill. 0 for 3. There was no path up to the top, just tall grass and weeds all about knee-high, so the ascent was no fun, and neither was the decent, especially since I was wearing shorts. There was definitely no one attending to the hill. Even the ground of the pavilion was overgrown with greenery. But at least I got 2 nice shots from the top of the hill...though it wasn't worth it.
The view from the pavilion: one of the lake, and the other of Usu-zan.
The lone pavilion atop the hill.
On the walk back to the town (again).
So with the sun already setting when I reached the town, I decided to catch an earlier bus back to the train station. I ended up missing it by a minute because I had actually unknowingly walked passed in to ask someone for directions to the bus stop (who wasn't the best help due to the lack of English). I contemplated walking back to town myself, because the onsen town was pretty dead (it's very small) after the sun set, but I decided to save my legs and just wait for the next bus...which was another 50 minutes. It was one of the longest 50 minutes I had experienced in Japan, sitting there alone in the dark. Finally the bus came, and I found out along the ride that the road that goes back to the station actually had no streetlights, so at least I made one smart decision by not walking to the station. I got to the station just in time for the train back to Sapporo - the bus was held up at a railroad crossing, and I was definitely not looking to spend more wasted time in the tiny town.
So because of all my bad decisions which took up time, I didn't get to see everything I had planned to see. I had actually wanted to walk along the shore of Lake Toya and try to see nearby Showa Shinzan (a newly formed mountain due to volcanic activity). But even from a distance, Lake Toya was quite beautiful.
On the way back to Sapporo, I had to grab a beer on the train after a day like that. Sapporo beer brewery actually doesn't export Sapporo Classic outside of Hokkaido (so I had to enjoy it while I could)!
When I finally got back to Sapporo, it was quite late (it's about 2 hours by train between Toya and Sapporo). I wanted to try a famous ramen shop that's only open from 9PM - 4AM called Yukikaze, but for some reason, it was closed that night when I went! But no worries, I wandered around for a few minutes and stumbled upon another ramen shop where I had one of the most interesting dishes I've had in Japan so far, cheese ramen! Apparently putting cheese in ramen is already quite popular in South Korea (according to a Korean guest at the hostel who I met)? Either way, the Japanese are ingenious - it was very delicious. I also grabbed a side dish of gyoza - fried dumplings very similar to Chinese fried dumplings, though the dough was much thinner in the Japanese version.
Yum!
At least the night ended well!
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