15 Days in Kanagawa & Hokkaido – Day 13 – Onuma Quasi-National Park

Our last substantial day of visitations this trip, before we make our way back to New Chitose Airport tomorrow for the flight back to Tokyo, and the day after that, the SQ flight back home. We found this place – the Onuma Quasi-National Park – while looking for places to fill a morning before an afternoon at Motomachi back near Hakodate port. I’m not sure why it’s called a quasi-national park, but I reckon it might be because it’s fairly small for a national park – apparently the smallest in Hokkaido, according to Wikipedia.

The park is about 29 km north of Hakodate, and can be reached by JR train from Hakodate Station to Onuma Koen Station, which is right near the entrance of the park (a minute walk away). Depending on whether you’re on the limited express train – as the train we took was heading to Sapporo – the journey took just over 30 minutes and brought us to a tiny little train station where we were actually personally welcomed by the train staff even haha. That’s pretty much how remote this train stop was.

The park comprises two lakes – one large and a smaller one – and a large number of small islands interconnected by bridges of various designs. The park was blanketed by fairly thick layers of snow – from several inches to a foot deep. You’d have to keep your eyes peeled so that you don’t accidentally wander off into the water, but we managed just fine with two kids in tow. We completed the Shimameguri-no-Michi, or island-hopping trail that brings us around seven of the little islands linked by bridges, with a suggested trail walking time of 50 minutes. The park saw very few visitors over the roughly two hours we spent there, and it was almost surreal to be walking through a snow-covered landscape with no other humans in sight.

Though just when we were leaving, a busload of tourists with shrill voices that we could hear a mile away – no need for me to say where they’re from – came up, which pretty much again brought us back to earth.

Still, pictures to remember this place by.