This day was planned specifically for Lake Toya, ‘a volcanic
caldera lake in Shikotsu-Toya National Park’ according to Wikipedia. I didn’t
know much about this place. I have heard it for the first time, on the previous
day from my father. So I was mostly uninterested; who wouldn't be, when all
they can see in their mind is a lake named Toya. That was the only image I got,
BUT, completely different from how it actually looked like!
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Near Ana Hotel Sapporo, Sapporo, Japan. May
1, 2014
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The Sapporo railway station was very near to our hotel,
nearly 7 minutes walk away. Our train, Hokuto 84 was at 7.30 am. It took 2 hours to
Toya.
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Ana Hotel Sapporo, Sapporo, Japan. May 1,
2014
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Everything was fine until we reached the Toya station where we came
across our first problem. We did not know, how to go to the lake from the
station. Seeing the map yielded no results as the distance was too much to
merely cover by walking. So while my father looking around frustrated, I waited
relaxed with the situation and just looked around my surroundings.
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Train ticket for Hokuto 84 from Sapporo
to Toya.
Hokkaido, Japan. May 1, 2014
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The place
was cold and misty outside the station, but it was indulgent to my eyes then
again Japan itself was like that. I got bored soon enough and looked at a
board, where I noticed was posted a time table of a bus schedule. After I
figured out the table, I pointed it out to my mother who quickly called my
father. After that things went pretty smoothly, for me.
The bus was called Donan, probably the company name and was painted in pear
green with forest green stripes. The bus took us at least 20 minutes to reach
the Toyaku Onsen which is a hot spring. From this particular station the lake
was visible. And I was impressed, it was beautiful. In the middle of the lake
there was an island or more appropriately islands. When we neared the lake a
harbour with an odd looking ship greeted our sight. Espoir was the
name of the cruise boat, shaped like a medieval European castle.
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Lake Toya
cruise boat. Toya, Hokkaido,
Japan. May 1, 2014
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We boarded it after getting the tickets. The boat would take us to the big island
in the middle. The view from the boat was again a delight for me and I was able
to take many pictures. The scene was just like mountains sprawling across the
terrain with clouds rolling in huge masses made the scene look mysterious and
ancient. I was also able to get a few pictures of some seagull flying. They
were fearless settling on the bows and staring down at me defiantly when I was
trying to get a good shot, that failed not because of the bird but because the
bow was in the way.
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Four islands
of Lake Toya. Toya, Hokkaido,
Japan. May 1, 2014
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There were four islands, Nakajima, Bentenjima, Kannonjima
and manjujima at the center of the Lake Toya. When we reached the big island
(Nakajima), we were given 30 minutes to wander around. The island had a museum;
so we took a walk around.
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Lake Toya
cruising. All the 4 islands are seen.
Toya, Hokkaido, Japan. May 1, 2014
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From the small museum, we gleaned a little more
information about the island; it had a diversity of birds it seemed. And deers,
shouldn’t forget them, after all we did see some deer behind a fenced area. I
was peacefully watching and trying to get nearer to the doe without frightening
it, until my father barged in and it ran away.
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Lake Toya
cruising. Toya, Hokkaido, Japan. May 1, 2014
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By the time we had done everything our time was up and we
returned to the mini harbour where another boat arrived to pick us up. Settling
down cosily in the boating with a heating system, I was even without the
expression, happy, after all I loved nature, seeing it made me so happy.
Landing on land we decided to have lunch. This might has
been the second obstacle, all the restaurants had pork in it and since our
family did not eat pork we left. But that was finally solved when we came
across a modern looking restaurant, Sendoan (for Japanese food) with our
personal favourite chicken curry rice!
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Chicken curry rice at Sendoan restaurant,
Lake Toya.
Hokkaido, Japan. May 1, 2014
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We were seated comfortably in the restaurant, viewing the
lake. The quantity of rice that was given and the chicken was…too much. My
parents were struggling to finish it. Somehow I was able to eat it all up not
wanting to waste it, but my parents failed and they both had leftovers even my
father the one who usually says things like ‘wasting food is not good!’ At the
end of our lunch, however my parents declared that they would never eat curry
rice again for a long time, though it was a lie. Other than the quantity, it
was delicious..!
Our second but last destination of the day was Usuzan
rope way. For which we had to take another bus. This was tiring admittedly as the
bus took a long time to come, fortunately I had my phone to play games with, so
I was distracted. Flow is awesome.
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Mount Usu ropeway gondola. Toya, Hokkaido,
Japan. May 1, 2014
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By the time we reached the rope way station it was 3.30 pm
and it took us another 10 minutes to actually stand in queue for the rope way. After
a 6 minutes ride by the rope way gondola, we arrived at the Mt. Usu summit, from
where we could get a clear view of the volcanic mountain Usu which had erupted
at least four times in the past century. The scenery from the summit of Mt Usu was
again beautiful as we could see a view of Lake Toya; but good pictures were
hard to take as the place was slightly misty. None the less I took enough
pictures to satisfy myself.
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Volcano Mount
Usu, a view from the summit of the
Usu mountain, Toya, Hokkaido, Japan. May 1, 2014
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After returning to the ground gondola station, we had a break
and I wandered around the souvenir shops until I saw a lucky pick where you have
to insert coins and twist the knob, if you are lucky you will get the object
you wanted; if not, you just have to live with any other option. Why was I
excited? I was excited because the lucky drop had characters from my favourite
show ‘One Piece’. I coaxed my mother into giving the money and she relented as
it was pretty cheap.
‘My luck is so bad’, was what I thought when I stared at the
character in my hand it was Trafalgar Law a rival and ally to my favourite
character. I was hoping for luffy after all, but after that my mother refused
to give me money, so I have to live with it…until now!
Back to the topic, we
left to wait for the bus which would take us back to the Toya station. That
practically concluded our day excluding a small mishap in which our train,
Hokuto 91 arrived ahead of schedule and we almost missed it along with some
other people who were waiting for the same train.
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Hokuto 91 from Toya to Sapporo. Hokkaido,
Japan. May 1, 2014
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Overall, the self-made trip was actually more fun than I
would admit without the hurriedness required in guided tours. I was happy
throughout the remaining day!
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