Day 189-192 Cycling Hokkaido from Prison to Pond

Sep 21 • Blog, Hokkaido • 3184 Views • 2 Comments

Departing from Lake Saroma in rain, I found an entry way to the Okhotsk Cycling Road. It was along Sea of Okhotsk, nearly 40km long that led to the city of Abashiri, just where I was heading. There are many old railways in Hokkaido, and this cycling road apparently uses its old path. Having talked with a couple of travelers who were into these old train history, coming across an old locomotive train along my cycling way felt a bit more special than it would have otherwise.

Just when I was admiring this old train, I kept hearing music from nearby. I soon found out it was the annual Glasswort Festival in Lake Notoro, where I could view the lake with red glasswort in season. This is a quite rare site, and this lake happens to have the most amount of this plant in the country. It was pretty, however apparently it used to be even redder before. The past year of conservation effort has had an opposite effect despite their best intentions, and they are trying to revive back the brightness of the field. What was also notable yet not so funny was my rain outfit, which was as red as this glasswort field.

The city name, Abashiri, is nationally known for Japan’s northernmost prison. I went to their famous Abashiri Prison Museum to take a peek of its history. It was actually a very sad story of development in Hokkaido with the involvement of its prisoners in extremely hard labor. One of such episode was approximately 200 known prisoners and some guards losing their lives during the building of the major road in the remarkable eight month time, working in the intense, freezing weather of Hokkaido back in 1891.

In the museum, there were some displays of the current Abashiri Prison’s typical meals. Their menu is balanced in nutrition, and it said that the food amount depends of the person’s age and type of work too.

Also there was a replica of an old Japanese kitchen of where a guard lived. Where you see the big wooden lid is the old school rice pot (the left one).

There are so many lakes around this area on the eastern side of Hokkaido. Alongside Lake Tofutsu were a herd of wild horses!

The next day, I cycled up to view Lake Mashu from Uramashu (back of Mashu) Observatory. I tend to forget that any place that carries the word “observatory” involves uphills. It was over 600m high of exercise, which turned out to be not so bad. The fact that I can say it isn’t so bad is an improvement of my legs and more importantly, my mentality! One of the great things after going up is when I turn around and find an absolutely gorgeous view that I didn’t even realize I had behind me. And of course, the view ahead is spectacular too.

Forests around here have a different beauty from the other regions of Japan. I bet Ansel Adams would have loved Hokkaido too.

Here we are at Lake Mashu. This is the beautiful blue lake that is said to have the world’s best water clarity. People who passed me by motorcycles and cars came up and started talking to me when I got to the observatory. I was the only one who was cycling there with so many stunning views along the way that they wouldn’t have noticed at such high speed. The truth is, the beauty of the destination isn’t any more spectacular than many things I find trying to get there, much like it was with this tour and the final goal.

On the way back from Lake Mashu, I cycled into the dirt trail despite my fear for bears, to see Kaminoko-ike, which translates to God’s Child Pond. The word “mystical” is best suited to describe this crystal clear blue pond with fish swimming and water springing. You could almost see a fairy as well in such godly sight.

What I was glad not seeing was a bear on my way to Sakura Falls.

At this Sakura Falls between June and August, you can see cherry salmon jumping up the river. Having seen the bear warning, I was in and out of this place, wishing there would have been more people besides just me.

“Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!” ain’t so funny when I see the real-life bear warning. But, there’s nothing like following the yellow brick road of your own, especially on a bicycle.

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