{"id":31391,"date":"2019-12-19T19:52:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T11:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=31391"},"modified":"2026-03-14T14:09:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:09:27","slug":"15-days-in-kanagawa-hokkaido-day-08-mt-usu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2019\/12\/19\/15-days-in-kanagawa-hokkaido-day-08-mt-usu\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Days in Kanagawa & Hokkaido – Day 08 – Mt. Usu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mt. Usu<\/strong> is an active volcano in Hokkaido, and the fact that it could blow up at any time is a reminder issued prominently as one lines up to go up via ropeway. The four eruptions since 1900 were in 1910, 1944-45, 1977 – and most recently in 2000. The ticket price for the ropeway is \u00a51,600 for adults, half that for children in elementary school. The ropeway ascends quite steeply, and you get a close-up view of Mt. Showa Shinzan along the way. This mountain is apparently one of Japan’s youngest mountains and rose quite recently between 1943 and 1945. The picture I took below also shows that it’s still venting sulphur fumes, something that you can also smell at the ropeway base station.<\/p>\n

The ropeway brings visitors to the upper station, and there are two viewing areas. Coming out of the station, you can turn right, walk for just a minute to reach the platform where you get a look at Lake Toya and Mt. Showa Shinzan. Turning left at the T junction is about 600 meters away and uphill, but it’s also supported by a solid set of gentle steps, and there are also guard railings on one side. The views you get on the second platform, including that of Mt. Usu’s crater, are spectacular, though it was also freezing up on the summit!<\/p>\n

Pictures:<\/p>\n

\"\"
At the base station of the Mt. Usu ropeway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The car comes every 15 minutes, and it takes half that time for a trip. So turnaround is reasonably brisk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A look at Lake Toya as the car ascended the ropeway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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There’s no advantage to doing either observatory first, so pick your fancy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Looking from the Lake Toya observatory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Zoomed-in and magnified picture of the built-up areas at Lake Toya’s shore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Mt. Showa Shinzan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Ascending up to the Mt. Usu crater observatory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The steps you have to climb: the ground is rock solid, so you won’t slip.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Spectacular views at the Mt. Usu crater observatory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Overcast day at about 2:35PM.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Steps leading to the crater itself, but this was blocked off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Mt. Usu crater.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The -2 degree Celsius was quite tolerable: until the wind blows!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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19 Dec today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Mt. Showa Shinzan venting sulphurous fumes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Continued in the next post where the kids got a great opportunity to enjoy snow<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mt. Usu is an active volcano in Hokkaido, and the fact that it could blow up at any time is a reminder issued prominently as one lines up to go up via ropeway. The four eruptions since 1900 were in<\/p>\n

Read More 15 Days in Kanagawa & Hokkaido – Day 08 – Mt. Usu<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[662,608,667],"class_list":["post-31391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-kanagawa-hokkaido-japan-2019","tag-sony-a7-iii","tag-tamron-28-75mm-f2-8-di-iii-rxd","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/blog-2019-japan-kanagawa-hokkaido-day-08-A7_04496-day-tour-mt-usu.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38435,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31391\/revisions\/38435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}