Lake Toya

Lake Toya is a caldera lake in southern Hokkaido, part of a national park where volcanoes still steam beside farm country. The lake rarely freezes even in deep winter, and its center islands rise straight from the water, with a hot spring resort town along the southern shore.

Mount Usu, the volcano that last erupted in 2000, runs a ropeway with views over the lake and the smoking dome of Showa Shinzan, a peak that pushed up out of a farm field in the 1940s. Cruise boats cross to the islands, and lakeside baths face the water.

Fireworks burst over the lake nightly through the warmer months, best watched from an onsen hotel balcony. Buses and trains connect via Toya station on the Sapporo-Hakodate line, and the lake makes a natural overnight between those two cities. Geology museums explain the restless ground underfoot.