Off to the Land of the Rising Sun! (Part 7)

6 August 2013 was another day of wholesome adventure! We ventured out to the volcanic craters by foot, and boy, it was a looooooong walk indeed!! Still in the region of Shikotsu-Toya National Park, we started the day early and drove to Mount Usu (or some call it Mt. Usuzan), an active volcano which last erupted in year 2000. Apparently, Mount Usu has erupted 4 times in the last 100 years.

Driving in this part of Japan is really strange, I tell you. It can get very foggy, roads barely visible on one side of the mountain and as you exit to the other side, the sun is scorching hot and you get clear skies! The 2 pictures above was taken before and after crossing an underground tunnel. Thank goodness we're staying on the sunny side :)

Before heading to see the craters by foot, we went on the Usuzan Ropeway which brings us close to the volcano summit. The station observation deck also offers great views of Lake Toya and Showa Shinzan (picture on top left). Showa Shinzan stands next to Mt. Usu and is one of Japan's youngest mountains. Between 1943 and 1945, an earthquake erupted and the mountain rose from a flat wheat field to its current height of 290m. 

Observation deck - on the right is Showa Shinzan and on the left is part of Lake Toya

Journey begins here. Must eat some corn for energy first. Hehe!

All I had were these worthy slippers for a long track ahead!

At the start, the path was paved with hundreds (and I really mean by the hundreds) of steps. It felt endless...

First view point along the way. Ginnuma Crater was formed after Usuzan's eruption in 1977. It's the largest crater measuring 350m in diameters.

After the fleet of steps, it was uphill all the way and we were walking on high temperature grounds

Better views of the crater

Some creepy crawly "friends" we met along the way

I was tempted to try these berries but am so afraid it might be poisonous!

Views from the top

Mount Usu and Lake Toya 

Views on the other side

Heading back...

... and that's where we need to be

Rewarding ourselves after a long, hot walk! Hokkaido Ice Cream. The locals call it soft cream instead.
Indeed soft and nice. Yums :)

We saw some sunflower fields along the way and we stopped randomly.

My first time seeing so many sunflowers! And Mt. Usu as the backdrop - beautiful!

As it was almost the end of our trip, our wallets were also running on low too! Hehe. So we decided to have instant ramen for lunch. We found a spot, sitting under large trees with a view overlooking Lake Toya. Something simple yet special

Next we went to the water edges of Lake Toya. Waters were crystal clear, clean and cooling. What a relaxing dip to cool off our hot, tired feet!

Lake Toya is a volcanic caldera lake with approximately 10kms in diameter. This lake never ices during winter and is the second most transparent lake in Japan. No wonder the waters were crystal clear! The island in the middle is called Nakano-shima.

Off to the fruit orchard next. Here we paid Y850 (about RM30) per person and you can pick and eat as much as you can. Japanese cherries, plums, apples and grapes were in season.

Japanese cherries are really sweet and have that fragrant taste to it. It's colour is tomato-like. Definitely looks and taste different from those that you get from Australia or the States.

Peter went "ga-ga" seeing so many plums! He's a real fan of these. It doesn't seem ripe looking at its colours, but it IS ripe. Very sweet and fragrant too.

Ladders were provided! Comes in handy for people my height. Hehe.

The "si-tao chai" (owner's son). The helps the family to man the 7 acre orchard. Friendly chap who tries very hard to tell us about his orchard with his limited English. Would you believe, he is married with a son. Only 27 years old! 

One for the road...

We called it a day and bid farewell to the sunny side of town... and headed back to the "unknown" again.