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Lake Toya

natureThe classic — done right

A near-circular caldera lake in southern Hokkaido, held between an active volcano and a spa town that has been rebuilt around its own ruins. The visitor centre and volcano museum on the shore are where the whole basin makes sense.

FromToya Station
~20 minDonan Bus, a dozen-plus runs a day
Get off atToyako Onsen Bus Terminal (Donan Bus Toya line)
On foot
Lake Toya

Directions ↗

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Toyako Onsen lakefrontthe promenade in front of the bus terminal, looking straight out at the islands
Lake Toya Visitor Centerthe Ministry of the Environment centre for the caldera, with the park ranger office upstairs
Volcano Science Museumthe other half of the same building, given over to the eruptions of Mount Usu
Konpira Crater Disaster Remains Traila walkway through housing and a bathhouse wrecked by the 2000 mud flows
Nakajimathe wooded island group in the middle of the lake, reached by boat from the pier

How to actually get there

Toya Station → Toyako Onsen (Donan Bus Toya line, about 20 minutes).
Toyako Onsen terminal → the Lake Toya Visitor Center and Volcano Science Museum, a few minutes on foot along the shore road.
Carry on inland to the Konpira crater trail, open late April to mid-November.
Come back down to the lakefront for the islands and, in season, the evening boat.

Donan Bus Toya line from Toya Station: Toya is a Muroran Main Line station and the Hokuto limited expresses stop there. From the station front take the Donan Bus service towards Toyako Onsen and Showa-Shinzan. The operator's timetable gives about twenty minutes to the terminal, with a dozen or more departures a day in each direction.
Return from Toyako Onsen: The same line runs back to Toya Station, and other services from the same terminal head for Muroran, Date or Sapporo instead. Evening departures are sparse and the last one is not late, so read the board at the terminal when you arrive rather than when you leave.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Lake Toya fills a caldera — the basin left when the roof of an emptied magma chamber falls in — and that is why it is so nearly round. The rim has never gone quiet. Mount Usu on the southern shore has erupted repeatedly within living memory, and the town on the water was rebuilt each time. The Ministry of the Environment describes it as the northernmost lake in Japan that does not freeze, so the water stays open through a Hokkaido winter while the ground around it goes white. Wooded islands sit in the middle, facing the shore town straight on.

How to enjoy it

Do the museum first and the shore second; the exhibits change what you are looking at when you come back out. The crater trail behind the town and the boat to the islands both run from late April to mid-November, so outside those months the lake is still there but the walks are not. Fireworks are set off over the water on evenings in season, which is the one hour when the lakefront is the right place to be.

Background & history

The basin was formed about 110,000 years ago, when an eruption large enough to spread ash across Hokkaido emptied the chamber below and the ground above it collapsed. Water filled what was left. The system never stopped: Mount Usu, on the southern rim, erupted again in 2000, and the mud flows that followed tore through the edge of the spa town. Rather than clear the wreckage away, the district left it where it stood and built a walkway through it. The area is now a UNESCO Global Geopark.

Before you go

Cash: Fares on the Toya line are paid in cash as you get off, unless you are on a reserved express coach, so keep small notes and coins on you. Inside the visitor centre building the volcano museum has its own desk, and rates are posted there rather than at the bus terminal. The crater walkway behind the town needs nothing.
Good to know: The Konpira crater trail is open from late April to mid-November, and the boat out to the islands runs on roughly the same season. The visitor centre keeps a weekly closing day and a New Year break, so a Monday visit is worth checking first. Winter leaves the lake as open water but shuts most of the walking.
Another way: By car, leave the Doo Expressway at the Abuta-Toyako interchange and drop down to the shore. Donan Bus also runs coaches into Toyako Onsen from Sapporo via Jozankei and Rusutsu, and from Muroran and Date, so the town can be reached without doubling back to the railway at all.
After you get off: The terminal stands on the lakefront, in the same block as the summit memorial hall. Turn away from the water and walk southwest along the shore road for a few minutes; the visitor centre and the volcano museum share one building where the town runs up against the sabo dam works.