Lake Shikaribetsu
licensed photographKoda6029 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Central Hokkaido · ShikaoiNo.887★★Open in map →

Lake Shikaribetsu

— A mountain lake inside Daisetsuzan National Park

natureOff the trail — and worth it

A dammed lake high in Daisetsuzan National Park, reached by a public bus that ends at the water. Clear water, lava domes on the skyline, and from late January a village of snow and ice built out on the frozen surface.

  1. FromObihiro Station
  2. ~1 hr 45 minTakushoku Bus, a few runs a day
  3. Get off atShikaribetsu-kohan Onsen stop (Takushoku Bus, Lake Shikaribetsu line)
  4. From there
  5. Lake Shikaribetsu
Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is a well-known lake inside a national park, not an undiscovered one. What thins the traffic is the road: it climbs off the Tokachi plain and stops dead at the shore, so nobody passes through by accident. The winter ice village and the summer canoe season also draw quite different visitors, which spreads the year out.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Shikaribetsu-ko Kotanpakku / CC BY 3.0
  1. Shikaribetsu-kohan Onsenthe western shore where the bus ends, with the hot-spring hotels, the nature centre and the pier in one row
  2. Shikaribetsu-ko Kotanthe ice village raised on the frozen lake in late winter, with igloos, an ice bar and an open-air bath
  3. Sightseeing boat pierdeparture point for the cruise boat in the warm months, the only powered craft allowed on the water
  4. Bentenjimaa small island out on the lake with a torii standing on it
  5. Mt Hakuun and Mt Tenbothe lava domes that close the view from the shore, one of them nicknamed the lip mountain

How to actually get there

  1. Obihiro Station Bus Terminal → Shikaribetsu-kohan Onsen (Hokkaido Takushoku Bus, Lake Shikaribetsu line, about 1 hr 45 min).
  2. Stay on to the terminus; the shore, the nature centre and the hot-spring hotels are all beside the stop.
  3. Walk the lakeside first, then the pier. In winter the ice village is laid out on the lake in front of the hotels.
  4. Return on the same line, and break the trip at Ogigahara Lookout on the way down for the view over the Tokachi plain.
Takushoku Bus from Obihiro Station
Obihiro Station Bus Terminal →(Hokkaido Takushoku Bus, Lake Shikaribetsu line)→ Shikaribetsu-kohan Onsen, the last stop. The operator's own timetable puts the run at a little under two hours, with several departures spread across the day and no transfer needed. Fares are distance-based and shown on the board as you board.
Back down to Obihiro
The same line runs back from Shikaribetsu-kohan Onsen. There are only a handful of departures a day and the last one goes in the early evening, so read the timetable at the stop as soon as you arrive rather than at the end of the day.
Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Lake Shikaribetsu lies in the southern part of Daisetsuzan National Park, in the town of Shikaoi. Lava domes of the Shikaribetsu volcanic group grew across the valley of the Yanbetsu River and closed it, and the water gathered behind them at 810 metres. No other natural lake in Hokkaido sits that high. The shoreline runs about 13.8 kilometres and folds in and out, so the lake never shows itself all at once. The water is unusually clear, with a recorded transparency of 19.5 metres. Hot-spring hotels, a nature centre and the boat pier stand together on the western shore, and the road ends there.

How to enjoy it

Come in the morning if you want the lake still. The tourism association recommends the early hours on the water, when mist sits on the surface and the domes come back off it. In winter the ice village opens at nine and runs into the evening, so a day trip on the bus works in either season.

Background & history

This is a dammed lake, not a crater lake. Lava domes of the Shikaribetsu volcanic group grew across the Yanbetsu River and shut the valley, and the water rose behind them. Char cut off in the new lake evolved into Miyabe charr, a subspecies of Dolly Varden that lives nowhere else. The village of ice on the winter lake borrows the Ainu word kotan, meaning village, and stands from the end of January to the middle of March.

Before you go

Cash
Walking the shore costs nothing. The winter ice village asks for a season-pass contribution at its general reception desk, and the sightseeing boat, the canoe tours and the ice bath are charged separately. Bus fares are paid on board, where the operator also accepts QR-code payment.
Before you go
The lake freezes in winter and the ice village runs from the end of January into March. The road between Nukabira and the lake is closed through the snow season, so come up from the Shikaoi side. Mountain weather turns quickly even in summer.
Another way
From JR Shintoku Station, take the same operator's Shikaoi services and change at Shikaoi for the Lake Shikaribetsu bus. By car the tourism board reckons about an hour from the Tokachi-Shimizu interchange on the Doto Expressway.
After you get off
The bus terminates at Shikaribetsu-kohan Onsen, right at the water. Turn toward the lake and the shore path, the nature centre and the pier are all a minute or two on foot.