I
came to Toya-Ko
hoping to experience an apocalyptic landscape and check out
a blackened, smoking volcano. Toya-Ko, or Lake
Toya, is a few hundred clicks north of the coastline,
and is a summer tourist trap where Japanese folks pilgrimage
each year to go waterskiing and stay in the expensive
hotels that ring the big lake. The lake itself is kinda nice,
a big volcanic crater with a little island in the middle
of it. The history of Toya-Ko is what fascinated me. And I'm
not talkin' ancient history here. Mount
Usu ominously looms over the shoulder of the
town like a coal-black cloud on a stormy day. The gargantuan,
very active volcano has violently blown its tempermental top
at least three times in the past 20 years. The last eruption
came only four years ago, and being the ridiculously dorky volcano-afficionado
that I am, I actually remember gawking at it on the news.
The eruption devastated the entire region around Toya-Ko, blowing
forests to smithereens and caking the city in mud and
ash.
The town, obviously, is still recovering, and unfortunately
for backpackers, isn't ideal for hiking or even walking. Although
there's a small paved walkway around the big tourist trap
hotels, down towards the volcano you'll have to brave the
road on which tour buses jockey for position up the mountain.
It's a terrifying experience, and if you're like me and actually
like hiking and walking, it's pretty frustrating. Even if
you were to take the bus, it only comes once every couple
of hours, and it's a long trek from the bus station to the
cheaper guesthouses at the corner of the lake.
Oh, and there are two decent, cheap guesthouses around Lake
Toya. The Kawanami guesthouse is a really nice one, a bit
pricier than the norm at about $30 US for a room, but they
give you an awesome "nabe" hot pot dinner and the
rooms and futons are extra-comfy. They have cable TV, BBC
and CNN and all that jazz. The Showa Shinzan Youth Hostel
is decent, kinda boring as there aren't any restaurants in
that area and the grub they serve there is pretty much jail
food, to be completely honest. It's clean though. Both guesthouses
have decent hot springs and nice showers.
Kawanami
Guesthouse website
Showa-Shinzan
Youth Hostel
