Faraway mountains with faraway friends

In this one we're really in for a treat. We're headed for Japan's northernmost island, Hokkaido, and the story is this: Alex' parents have a friend from way way back, Kazimierz Kogut, who has lived in Japan for the last 28 years running an English school in the town of Kushiro on Hokkaido, with his Japanese wife Nobue. Alex' parents haven't met him for 30 years or so, but got in contact before we went to Japan, and Kazik and Nobue invited us to come and visit them. They made big plans for us to see the spectacular national parks of eastern Hokkaido, Kushiro Wetlands National Park and Akan National Park, both of which Kushiro is conviently close by. We took a 16-hour sleeper train from Tokyo to Sapporo (Hokkaido) Wednesday evening, and after a brief layover in Sapporo continued by train through the beautiful, wild, mountainous and sunny Hokkaido countryside. With the chilly wind from Siberia, the wide open spaces, the snowy mountains and the small farms in the valleys, Hokkaido doesn't feel all that different from Scandinavia!

The Koguts have designated half of their house to the English school.

Kushiro River, where fishermen line up, runs just one minute from the house.

Needless to say, Nobue and Kazik were fantastic hosts. From the smiling, jumping welcome at the train station, to the delicious oden supper, to the evening onsen trip, to the late-night beers and funny stories, our first day in Kushiro was thoroughly delightful. But the real fun started the next morning, when we set out for a long day of sightseeing in the national parks. Following Nobue's uncle, who knew the mountain roads like the palm of his hand, we got all the best eastern Hokkaido had to offer. The first stop was an observatory overlooking Kushiro Wetlands, an important ecosystem for wildlife and birds, especially the very endangered Japanese cranes. Although the winter had only just released its icy grip and the expansive marshes looked rather brown and lifeless, the very informative and interesting displays in the observatory told us all about the many organisms living there, and I felt the passionate biologist in me reawaken!

Alex and Kazik learning a bit of wetland ecology 101.

Whoever says Japan is crowded hasn't been to Hokkaido.

Next we drove to the beautiful Akan mountains, and made a stop at Lake Mashu. Our guidebook (which Kazik didn't have much faith in!) said it was considered the most beautiful lake in Japan, and although Kazik kept apologizing for the weather and was sure that we didn't like it since it wasn't sunny, the truth was that we were both totally fascinated by the amazing landscape. The lake is in a deep volcanic crater (caldera), with steep hills on all sides. The six-hour hike around it looks amazing and is one I'd love to do! The place reminded me of something from Westeros north of the Wall.

Look at how the weather is playing with the light!

The tiny island is the volcano summit, and the Ainu call it
"the old woman that became a god". How Game of Thrones can you get?

Just a short drive on came the next highlight: The volcanic mountain of Iozan. We were immediately met by the sulphurous smell of rotten eggs that we'd grown to know, and a cloud of steam pouring out from a hillside. As we got closer we could see the thermal spouts, pools of boiling water, all surrounded by a yellow layer of sulphur-loving bacteria. Fascinating!

Nature! Stop being so amazing!

The mountain's leaking.

Then we drove to Lake Kussharo, the largest lake in Akan, famous for its Kussharo sea monster, geothermal shore which keeps a strip of water ice-free, and where you can dig down in the beach sand with your hands to get to warm water. 'Twas a fun place.

The birds enjoyed the ice-free water by the heated shore.

Alex enjoyed the foot bath on the heated shore. In the background is the sea monster.

Digging down in the hot sand was a neat feeling.

After all these sights and a nice soba lunch, they dropped us off near Akan International Crane Center at a hotel, where they had reserved us a room. We enjoyed an evening hike, a fine dinner and the hotel's own onsen, and visited the crane center the next morning. One of Kazik's students, Miyuki, works there as an English interpreter, and she gave us a private tour of the exhibitions and open-air crane cages. It was extremely interesting, as it is basically a textbook example of successful conservation biology. The cranes were thought completely extinct in the 1950s as noone had seen them in 20 years, until a farmer discovered a few of them on his field. He began feeding them, and today the crane center lies on the very same field, continuing the feeding program and taking care of injured cranes. There are now over 1500 of these beautiful and fascinating birds.

Waiting for lunch, Japanese style. Nobue's uncle is joining us.

150-160 cm. tall, the Japanese cranes are among the largest crane species.

The trend is definitely going the right way.

Miyuki sent us on the bus to Akan town, where Kazik and Nobue would come to pick us up that afternoon. We spent the day there hiking around in the beautiful weather at the foot of the majestic mount O-Akan. We saw bubbling mud pools (geothermal activity is so cool), a cute little marten (mår), amazing blue-sky views of the mountains, and went for a long off-road hike crashing our way through the woods and the half-rotten snow. A great and not so un-Norwegian way to spend Easter Saturday! We also had lunch in the Ainu village (Ainu is the indigenous people of Hokkaido) where we found a restaurant serving delicious venison Ainu dishes and playing Todd Terje, our brand new favorite music from Norway, on the stereo, which was a pretty cool surprise.

It was one of those days.

Not an entirely un-Norwegian day to spend Easter!

The Ainu kotan (village) was woodcarvingly touristy, but quite nice.

Boiling mud pools - check. A novelty to me!

Lake Akan is famous for its marimo, green algae balls. The Japanese find them very
kawai (cute) and advertise them alongside other badly photoshopped attractions.

Driving back to Kushiro we had amazing sunset views of the mountains Me-Akan and O-Akan out the back window. Back at home, Kazik and Nobue first sent us for a mandatory onsen soak, to get all the intolerable stress and fatigue out of our bodies, before taking us out for a wonderful kaitenzushi (sushi-go-round) restaurant. Again we could grab whatever we desired, and the little score-keeping plates were soon stacked high. Needless to say it was incredible, soon rivaling Akio's treat in deliciousness. Some favorites from this more northern-style selection were sakhalin (a Hokkaido freshwater fish - related to salmon but with smooth, white meat), sea urchin and whale meat sushi, and the fantastic day was again finished with more beers and good stories.

Our last day in Kushiro was Easter Sunday, and we all went to Kushiro's catholic church for mass and an Easter party afterwards. Kazik also took us to a shinto shrine where we visited a little museum and joined a monk who showed us all their different ceremonies. Shinto is, alongside Buddhism, the main religion in Japan. Our day of departure was wintery sunny and clear, like most of our days on Hokkaido. Before our train left I took a beautiful run along the Kushiro river. I zoomed along up to Kushiro Wetlands, where there were nice views and inquisitive Sika deer, but struggled back down in the fierce headwinds, reminiscent of crossing a lake on skis. Back at the house after a shower, coffee and cake, the Koguts filled our arms with snacks for the train rides and our backpacks to the brim with gifts. What a stay, what hosts! An enormous thanks to Kazimierz and Nobue for giving us a great Hokkaido adventure, we are so grateful.

I honestly had no idea Easter eggs were an actual thing!

Alex and Kazik being guided around Kushiro's largest shinto shrine.

We made several long farewells on the train platform!

Kazik and Nobue bought train tickets just to come on the platform with us.

We spent the night in Sapporo, and continued the next day to Hakodate, through the underwater tunnel to Aomori which connects Hokkaido and Honshu, and on to Tokyo by shinkansen from Aomori. It was a long trip, but the night in Sapporo and a nice lunch break and a bit of walking around in Aomori broke up the train rides nicely. We left behind the nice weather on Hokkaido, but now we're for a few last days in Tokyo.