East Hokkaido · TeshikagaNo.707★★★Open in map →
Lake Mashu
A caldera lake in eastern Hokkaido with no river flowing in or out. Three lookouts stand on the crater rim, and only the First Lookout is reached by a public bus, which goes up in the morning and comes straight back down.
- FromMashu Station (JR Senmo Line)
- ~25 minAkan Bus, one round trip a day
- Lake Mashu
Where it is
102 more notes in Hokkaido · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Mashuko Kamui Terracethe rebuilt lookout building, with an indoor lounge behind the deck
- The rim deckan open terrace on the crater edge, looking down onto the water
- Kamuishu Islanda small lava island standing alone near the middle of the lake
- Mount Kamuithe highest peak on the crater rim, with the hiking route starting here
How to actually get there
- Mashu Station → the First Lookout (Akan Bus, Mashu Line, about 25 minutes).
- Lookout car park → Mashuko Kamui Terrace, then through to the open deck on the crater rim.
- From the deck, pick out Kamuishu Island in the middle of the water and Mount Kamui on the rim.
- Take the same bus back down to Mashu Station; there is no later service.
- Akan Bus Mashu Line from Mashu Station
- Mashu Station →(Akan Bus, Mashu Line, about 25 minutes)→ the First Lookout, at the top of the crater road. The printed timetable shows two services, but only the morning one is running at the time of checking, leaving the station forecourt at 10:30.
- The same bus back down
- The return leaves the lookout at 11:25 and reaches Mashu Station at 11:50. Nothing follows it, so missing that departure means arranging a taxi. Mashu is the only staffed station in the town, which makes it the place to sort onward tickets.
About the place
Lake Mashu fills a collapsed volcanic crater in the town of Teshikaga, in eastern Hokkaido. The rim runs about 20 kilometres around the water, and its walls drop between 150 and 350 metres to the surface. At its deepest the lake reaches 212 metres. No river runs into it and none runs out; the water arrives from underground. The lake surface sits inside a special protection zone of Akan-Mashu National Park, so there is no boat, no shoreline path and no way down to the water. Everything you see here, you see from above.
How to enjoy it
The bus leaves the station in the morning and starts back from the lookout half an hour after it arrives, so that half hour is your visit unless you have other transport. The terrace building opens well before the bus gets there. Fog is a summer matter here rather than a year-round one, thickest from June into July, so a summer visit can mean a white wall where the lake should be.
Background & history
The caldera was formed by a large eruption roughly 7,000 years ago. A survey in the 1930s measured the water's transparency at 41.6 metres, the highest figure recorded anywhere at the time, and the lake has been described in terms of its clarity ever since. In Ainu it is Kamuy-to, the lake of the gods, and the island in the middle carries a name from the same root. The First Lookout was rebuilt in 2022 as Mashuko Kamui Terrace, which put a heated room behind the open deck.
Before you go
- Cash
- The deck and the terrace building are free to walk into. The bus is 570 yen one way, so carry cash for the fare. Drivers pay to park at the lookout, which makes the bus the cheaper way up.
- Before you go
- The terrace building opens from 8:30 and its closing hour moves with the season. Of the other two lookouts, the Third opens in the warm months only, and the Ura-Mashu lookout on the far side of the crater closes in winter. The rim is high and unsheltered, and fog can sit on the water all day.
- Another way
- By car, Teshikaga is a little over an hour from Kushiro, Memanbetsu or Nakashibetsu airport. Driving also opens up the Third Lookout and the Ura-Mashu lookout on the opposite side of the crater, neither of which has a bus.
- After you get off
- Board at the Mashu Ekimae stop on the station forecourt. The bus climbs the crater road and sets you down at the lookout car park, with the terrace building a few steps away. There is no walking section, and no footpath up.