While I was in University taking Japanese courses, my Japanese teacher told me all about Hokkaido once she found out I was coming here on JET. She told me about one place in Hokkaido where you can dig a hole in the sand on the beach and make your own personal outdoor onsen. I tried imagining it at the time then promptly forgot about it until just last week when we happened to come across it on the way back from Lake Akan! It's at a place called Sunayu, which means "hot sand", on the shore of Lake Kussharo, part of Akan National Park. Lake Kussharo is another caldera lake (like Lake Toya) with an island in the center and the entire area a thermal hotbed. At Sunayu, the thermal vents are so close to the surface that it heats up the sand along the beach. They've built some small foot baths where you can soak your feet, and the water is hot!

We went there to see the local mascot, a loch ness-ish monster called Kusshi. Apparently there have been sightings of Kusshi in the lake, but most Japanese claim it was just a large trout. The truth? We'll never know...

After a year in planning, Team Marimo was finally able to visit the birthplace of our team name, Lake Akan! Last weekend was a long weekend thanks to a "Sea Day" Monday, so Callie ventured out of her concrete jungle to spend time with me and Justin in rural Eastern Hokkaido. Our common bond for Hokkaido's greatest mascot brought us together and we vowed to one day visit the place where algae-boner mascots are made reality.

We started our adventure on a rainy Saturday afternoon by driving out to Lake Akan. Our first impression of the quaint, little tourist town was of endless rows of gift shops, Marimo street lamps, mechanical bears, and more algae ball-themed.. everything than you can think of. The first thing we did was stop by the tourist information to get a map of the town and area we would be spending the next few days exploring. Since we were staying the night, we set our tent up at the campsite then took a walk in the drizzling rain to get a proper look and (literally) soak in the town. We walked through an "authentic" Ainu (Hokkaido's native people) village, took a peek at the marimo souvenirs and wood carvings on display at the tourist shops, took pictures with Marimokkori, pet a monkey who needed his diaper changed, and headed to the Eco-Museum to walk through the forest and see the stinky mud pits called Bokke. Wet and still dirty from partying the night before, we promptly went to the best onsen in Hokkaido to sit naked in the rain in the outdoor bath. Feeling clean, refreshed, and stuffed with complimentary steamed potatoes, we went back to camp and barbecued five pounds of pork for supper. We went to bed as the sun set, letting the rainwater splattering on our tent lull (?) us to sleep.

We planned a hike up Meakan-dake (Mt. Meakan) the next morning, but as we woke to the sound of more intense rainsplatter than the night before, the outlook wasn't so good. We weighed our options (as the rain picked up even further) and decided to cancel the hike. I was crushed :( We sat in the foot onsen right next to our tent and decided we would head back that night to stay at Justin's instead of camping for a second day. After a quick breakfast, we took down our soaked tent, then went to the docks for a boat ride on Lake Akan. The 75-minute boat ride took us to a tiny island in the center of the lake where we spent fifteen short minutes at the Marimo Observation Center, looking at displays of enormous marimo. We were in heaven! The ride back to the docks took us on a scenic route of the lake's lush shoreline while blasting marimo-themed music over the loudspeakers. Once we arrived, we picked up a few last-minute souvenirs before eating lunch at a restaurant called Pronno for authentic Ainu cuisine and oak root tea.

As we left, our last glimpse of Lake Akan was shrouded in mist and rainclouds. But there beneath the waves are the hundreds of marimo, growing and synthesizing as they have for the past hundreds of years, fascinating tourists by virtue of being large, green, algae balls. Team Marimo's mission was a success!

Check out Callie's blog for more Marimokkori goodness!

10) I don't lock my doors anymore

9) I can instantly sort any type of garbage

8) I automatically take off my shoes whenever I come to raised floor

7) I bow even when I'm talking on the phone

6) I can grunt "Yes", "No", and "Maybe"

5) I can't speak proper English no more

4) I can kneel for long periods of time

3) I can distinguish between qualities of raw fish

2) I think driving 80km/hr is speeding

and lastly...

1) I can eat natto

My international driver's permit is due to expire in a few weeks so I went during work today to get my Japanese Driver's license... and here it is!


Lucky for Canadian's, getting a Japanese license is super easy and just a matter of getting my Canadian driver's license translated, filling out a few forms, and paying around 7000 yen (unlike what my American friend Justin had to go through). w00t!

River crossings, slippery waterfalls, loose scree, melting snow drifts and beautiful ridge lines - all the elements needed to make a day hike into an adventure! This is exactly what me and my friend, June, experienced last weekend on my most favorite mountain so far, Mt. Shari. We got to the mountain just after 9 o'clock in the morning after getting lost and having to ask for directions to the trail head. The beginning of the trail starts off on a normal road that quickly narrows into a small path that ventures into the forest. After a while we reached our first of many river crossings, balancing on rocks just barely poking above the rushing water. A small mis-step and you'd be swimming! After an hour, three more river crossings, and navigating across unmelted snow drifts we reached a spot beside the river where the path branched into two routes - the old path and the new path. After short deliberation, we decided to ascend the new path and descend down the old path.

After another hour of hard, steep climbing (with a few stops for pictures), we finally made it to the top of the ridge with a clearing where we had a great view of the mountain range. There was a Japanese couple taking a rest in the clearing so we decided to ask them how much longer it was to the peak. They pointed to a soaring mountain across the valley and said, "That one there, on the left". What we didn't realize is that the "new path" basically takes you up a different mountain where you then have to traverse along the ridge to get back to Shari-dake. "From here, maybe two more hours," they said.

After a short rest for water and snacks, on we went. We hiked another hour up and down the ridge line, through small gullies still filled with snow, and along shadowed forest paths. We were mainly among brush so we had a gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains and forests. The clouds were low that day and flowing up the mountain side, only to be dissipated by the sun's heat once it reached the peak. It had the effect of creating a standing wall of fog essentially straddling the mountain ridge. It was amazing.

We made it back to the rushing river we crossed from the start of the hike (now a small creek at that altitude) where the new path meets back up with the old path. We continued up the creek, stepping from stone to stone, until we reached the rocky road to the top. We followed a path of loose stones through the trees for another hour until we cleared the trees and reached a giant mound of scree and boulders, like a scar on the face of the mountain. We scrambled our way to the top ridge and stopped to rest while we watched the clouds roil on the other side of the mountain.

From there, we still had another hour of hard climbing to go. The scree and boulders continued to the bitter end until we crested the final peak and finally reached the summit. We sat down to rest and rewarded ourselves with lunch as we reached the top, just as my legs were starting to tighten and the scree was taking its toll. We were in the midst of a cloud on the summit so all we could see was endless fog. We chatted with a Japanese guy on the peak in English who showed us a map of the mountain and the routes up. We told him we came up the new path and were planning to go down the old path but he told us, "It's very dangerous. You should go down the new path". After he headed down we said "Bah, 'dangerous' is relative," and still planned to descend down the old path.

We headed back down around 2 o'clock after a eating lunch and resting for a bit. Most of the Japanese people we met on the mountain were headed down on our way up so we were one of the few people left at the top. We made our way back to where the new and old paths met and continued on down the creek. We were in the shadow of the mountain where the clouds didn't dissipate at this point so we had fog as our constant companion the entire way down. The old path is a more direct route that follows the creek directly down the mountain. The further along it goes, the bigger and faster the creek becomes until it's a viable river. The path continues along, crossing and re-crossing the river, jumping from one bank to the other and barely straying from it at all. At parts where there were waterfalls or steep drops, chains and ropes are conveniently provided to prevent from slipping on the wet rock walls. Maybe 'dangerous' wasn't so relative after all.. We quickly realized that the "old path" was definitely not meant to be climbed down but climbed up! We'd accidentally taken the wrong route around the mountain! Facing the inevitable, we carried bravely forth. It took us a slow, precarious two hours climbing down slick rock, past waterfalls and across more snow drifts until we finally arrived back at the point where the paths met up. We were exhausted but took the final hour back to the trail head nice and easy. It was 5 o'clock when we got back to the trail head, a full eight hours after starting out. Tired, sore, wet, dirty and with three of our four knees injured, we were ready to call it a day. Afterwards, we went to an onsen to soak in the scalding water and soothe our aching muscles.

Thinking back on the day, it was definitely one of the most exciting hikes I've done since being in Hokkaido. Aside from the difficult climb itself, the extra elements of hanging onto tree branches above the rushing water as your feet slip out from under you or hopping from rock to rock added a lot of excitement to the hike. I will - without a doubt - climb Shari-dake again someday... but this time, the right way around.