September 18, 2025
Day 16 — Lake Shikotsu to Lake Toya
Well enough about swimming.
Morning at Lake Shikotsu was grey and cool. Given the number of young people in the dispersed camping on the beach, the evening and night were pretty peaceful.
The day’s ride was to be lake to lake, between two national parks. We got an early enough start though I think wished we had provisioned more breakfast. A couple weeks in and our appetites were picking up, and we hadn’t seem to quite get the hang of what to pack, food wise. Conbinis are everywhere, so it seems foolish to overpack on food — then the stretch before the campground has nothing. And there is certainly nothing open for breakfast.
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The ride that morning was a climb up out of the basin the lake was in. The biking/walking shoulder persisted in its stick littered state. Before long we encountered for the first time a thing we had been dreading — the first tunnel. In all there were three to go through that morning. The first was nearly 2km long, but had the bike shoulder on it, so while it wasn’t fun, we were separated from the traffic. The second was shorter, at 350m, but only had a very narrow sidewalk. So we got the reflective armbands on, put the lights on and charged through. On the other side we found the side shoulder was no more, and in fact the remaining on road shoulder was pretty skimpy. At that point we started to appreciate how much truck traffic there was.
In any event, on we climbed. Some of the views were absolutely spectacular, but we had no opportunity to appreciate them, as we had to focus on keeping steady in our tiny lane. Finally we came to the third tunnel. The sidewalk was wide enough to walk on — barely — but not ride on. So we skittered along what turned out to be a kilometre and a half tunnel accompanied by the roar of truck traffic. -10/10, did not enjoy.
The far end of the tunnel was the crest of the hill we were climbing and we barreled downhill a short while until we got to a big rustic style michi no eki, where to soothe our appetites and emotions we got jumbo sized chashu pork ramen that also featured a variety of mushrooms, which seemed to be one of the specialties of the area.
The ride improved greatly from there. We careened downhill until we passed the juncture where the trucks seemed to be heading, and we ended up losing not only the trucks, but 300m of altitude. We were following this river that clearly had hot mineral springs along it; clouds of steam came off it, and the mineral deposits gave it a contrast of ochre and turquoise.
The last few kilometres after the turn for Lake Toya were peaceful and calm, with peekaboo views of the lake. The lake itself is a volcanic creation, with a large island in its centre. The nearby volcano, Mt. Uzo, seems to erupt every 30 years or so, and we saw signs for Mt Uzo eruption shelters as we biked along.
I immediately took to the campground, as the office had both an espresso machine and draft beer on tap. Even better, there was an onsen and a restaurant a stone’s throw away. We set up beside a babbling brook, and paused lakeside with a draft beer before heading to the onsen and dinner.
The restaurant and onsen had a hunting lodge vibe going, and oddly had a number of maps of Finland on display (they have a sister city in northern Finland it turns out). The restaurant itself featured deer: deer ramen, deer curry, deer gyoza etc. Certainly Japan has an adequate deer population to sustain this. We can report that the deer curry and deer sausage are delicious.
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 811 km (504 miles)
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