Hoi Hokkaido pt2: Lake Toya & Cape Kamui

On to Lake Toya! We are going to spend 4 days in that area, to explore the different parts of western Hokkaido. Superexcited we picked up our Toyota Yaris Cross and drove into the West.

Our first stop was at the beautiful Lake Shikotsu! We had a nice lunch there and we rented a swanboat, yes.

The lake was soooo beautiful! So incredibly clear and blue! Ward was the captain of the boat.

We had a nice lunch at a small cafe near the water.

And then we drove the last hours to our beaaautiful cottage on the hills surrounding Lake Toya, and the view was really something!

Overviewing the caldera lake that has a quaint little island in the middle of it (one that we would visit in the upcoming days!).

And during the night the view was even more spectacular, with the bright full moon and stars, and the bigger town of Toyako in the back…

This house was a full on house with two floors, a big kitchen, several bedrooms and a very big living room, so we cooked dinner most nights (so nostalgic to cook the recipes we used to make back in Osaka with the only-in-Japan ingredients!), and we spent a lot of time on the dining table painting (we bought poster colour paint and made a painting each day that reflected something we saw that day, more on that later!)

The first day of our stay near lake Toya we drove all the way up north to Cape Kamui, a beautiful coastline with rugged rocks and cliffs and bright blue water, it was really beautiful. We were so lucky with the weather!

BTW: Japan has the most awesome candy, like this little ghost, but we also had soda-flavored Fuji’s that were geographically correct and included Fuji’s little side mountain (yes for real, I didn’t even know Fuji had a side mountain).

Arriving at the north coast the views were awesome.

We decided to hike all the way to the lighthouse in the back! It was over 30 degrees and sooo sweaty but we went for it.

The water is just so blue, it is beautiful.

The rock formations were spectacular. The whole coast is littered with these kind of rocks that all have names, like ‘the old man” or “the bear” or “the woman and child” :D

There were some deer running around as well in this lush environment.

Suuuch a beautiful place! But also incredibly warm XD

We explored more of the coast, surrounded by butterflies. Turns out we were in Hokkaido during peak butterfly season.

During the walk there were beautiful views overlooking the bay and the small villages around it.

And a loooooooooooot of caterpillars that would bloom into butterflies in the next few weeks!

On our way back, we had some spectacular views of Mount Yotei as well. Yotei is usually covered in clouds but during this very clear day we could see all the ridges and details.

The next day we were thinking… that beautiful island in the middle of the lake we can see from our cottage? Let’s do a 3 hour hike around it! As we drove there we passed a beautiful shrine in the lake.

The drive was just gorgeous, as we drove around the lake to the other side, looking over Nakajima Island.

We took a ferry and arrived on the island around 12. We had to sign up for the hike, and had to be back by 3:30 because then they would close the gate to the forest o_o so we got going quickly!