Sounkyo - May 2018

Photo album

Monday 21st May

After being intrigued by the moss phlox playing card the night before, we tweaked our original plan (Lake Mashu, Mt Io and Lake Kussharo) to stop by Shibazakura Park, part of the the nearby Nonky Land cheese shop empire (we skipped the cheese shop despite the allure of the Camembert soft serve),  in the Okhotsk region. The sight was incredible - so much vibrant pink! We were there close to peak blooming period and it was just amazing to walk around all the Okhotsk moss phlox. Plus, we finally found where all the Hokkaido tourists had gone - they'd all decided to come to see the flowers. Towards the end of our visit we were befriended by Mitsue, a Japanese lady from Kushiro and it was good to compare travel plans. We grabbed some lunch and decided that since we had a long drive, we'd head directly on to Sounkyo. We'll keep Lake Mashu and Mt Io for next time!

From the map there didn't seem to be much along the highway but we found quite a few large towns and continuous urban areas. We stopped at Bihoro and pick up some antihistamine tablets - my allergy has eased slightly but I was keen for it to clear up. Mariko was great at finding shops that were the parallels of familiar types of stores back home - eg Tsuruha Drug = Chemist Warehouse. The Daisetsuzan mountains appeared in the distance, and our road started to climb.

The idea to stay at Sounkyo started as just a way to break a long drive, but I'd read that it had a nice waterfall and it could act as a backup mountain visit, in case the conditions hadn't been suitable when we were back in Furano. Mariko and her mum had done a fantastic job in booking our accommodation, as there wasn't a way to make our reservation in English. When we drove into the village, the GPS didn't give us the precise address, and Mariko asked me to keep an eye out for a sign that matched the fairly complicated kanji characters. We'd expected a modest hostel, but the accommodation turned out to be a moderately luxurious ryokan - and at a bargain rate!

We had a short walk around town but our preferred nature trail were closed due to bear sightings, so we set off on foot to see the Ryusei and Ginga waterfalls, a couple of kilometres back up the highway. It was a very scenic trail along the valley with precipitous cliffs along each side, with the path opening up to a car park full of tour coaches and a sizeable crowd of tourists admiring the impressive falls. We escaped the crowds by climbing the trail on the facing hillside. The coaches were all about to depart anyway, leaving the village nice and quiet.

Back at the hotel we enjoyed a delicious shabu shabu dinner (which I'd been keen to try during our trip) and the hotel onsen.

Tuesday

After another dip in the onsen and a buffet breakfast, we checked out of the the hotel and rugged up for a trip up the ropeway. The views were amazing, and it was bright, sunny and warm! We were quickly down to T-shirts, and I even tried going topless for a few minutes, and it was still quite comfortable. There were a handful of climbers (fully kitted out!) and workers attending to the chairlift, but otherwise we had the place to ourselves. We hiked up the length of the chairlift and tried to find the nature trail at the end but it was hidden beneath a metre of snow. It was almost tempting to push for the summit, but the gradient was increasing, so we declared it a job well done and semi-skiied in our hiking boots back to the ropeway.

Our stay in Sounkyo was very brief but we were blessed with brilliant weather, enjoyed staying in a great hotel and we had a fantastic time.