Lake Shikaribetsu Snowshoe & Cross-Country Ski

We will meet at a hotel in Obihiro City. Here, before we start our great adventure, we will meet our guide who will give an introduction of the meeting. The guide will go over the itinerary and also give a chance for us to introduce each other.

For dinner, we will have a set menu of Japanese Pork donburi. Donburi means bowl of rice with food on top. So for this meal, we will have cooked pork on top of a rice bowl.

Pork bowl is a famous specialty of the Obihiro area. Its roots goes back to the pioneer period. During the pioneer period, people in the Obihiro area distinguished cows are for milk, horses are for power and pigs are for eating. Since that period, people ate pork so as time went on, pork bowl became an indispensable part of the food culture of Obihiro area.

After a good breakfast at the hotel, we will meet at the hotel lobby and head on to Shikaoi region on a chartered coach. Bus ride will be about an hour and a half. On the bus, we will learn about the Shikaoi region from the guide.

Our first stop of the day is the Shikaoi Geopark Visitor Center. An expert staff will meet us here and will guide us through the building and explain to us about the Shikaoi area. We will learn how the land of Lake Shikaribetsu, Tokachi region and Shikaoi area were formed and also the living habitat of those areas. Even within the Hokkaido prefecture, these areas have a very cold climate, creating a unique topography and an ecosystem that can be called a “glacial museum”.

By learning about the origins and the characteristics of Lake Shikaribetsu here and the going outdoors to actually feel the nature for yourself, we will have a chance to enjoy our trip from a different perspective.

Our afternoon activity will start with putting on some snow shoes and trek in the woods. We will observe the unique qualities of snow in this cold region, the traces of winter animals and the plants that endure the cold. The woods around Lake Shikaribetsu is surrounded by virgin forest, and we will also observe valuable wildlife such as white-tailed eagles and Blakiston’s fish owls. We have a chance to actually see and experience for ourselves what we learned in the Geopark in the morning.

After we have a good 2 hour trek in the woods, we will have tea time to enjoy some drinks in the Ice Bar. Drinks are served in cups made from pure water of Lake Shikaribetsu. The staff from Lake Shikaribetsu Nature Center builds the Ice Bar and an outdoor ice bath every year for visitors to enjoy. While we grab a drink, we will enjoy talking to these staff and listen to their experiences of building these Ice Bars.

The last but not least experience of this day is enjoying a dip in the outdoor ice bath. The ice bath is located in the best position to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Lake Shikaribetsu. Don’t forget to bring your own bathing suit and a towel !

After dinner, weather permitting, we will go outside for a night watching activity. With the guide, we will walk for one hour on Lake Shikaribetsu. Just a short walk outside the hotel, we will see the world at night with no artificial lights. The air is more clear in the winter compared to summer, and there are more bright stars in the sky. We can observe the Winter Triangle of Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor and the Big Dipper.

The morning adventure is cross-country skiing on Lake Shikaribetsu and head to one of the sacred lake – Lake Shinonome. Lake Shinonome is a small lake with a circumference of 1km. Known as one of the three secret lakes in Hokkaido, it is located deep in the virgin forest on the east side of Lake Shikaribetsu, accessible only by foot. It has a majestic atmosphere that has been preserved since the ancient times. Cross-country skiing is a great way to enjoy the changing scenery, the natural formations on the lake, the endless snowfields and the open sky. This activity is a good 3 hour skiing.

In the afternoon, with the staff from Nature Center, we go on a Kotan Guided Tour, exclusively offered to our group. In the winter, the temperature of the area is about 5~10 degrees below zero during the day, and drops to 15~20 degrees below zero at night. On some days, it even drops 30 degrees below zero, making this area an extremely cold place. To make the most out of this cold weather, snow and ice, the staff at the Nature Center started the Lake Shikaribetsu Kotan project. In this tour, the staff will introduce the history of the Kotan and the secret story behind the construction of the igloo and how this project connects the nature and people.

Tonight, we will be staying overnight in the Ice Lodge. This is the only place where we can stay in an igloo made on a frozen lake. We sleep in a sleeping bag located on top of snow and ice like a bed. Even though the temperature outside the igloo drops to -30 degrees Celsius, inside the igloo is nice and warm because there are no wind blowing in.

Once we are in the sleeping bag, we will be warm and cozy for a good night sleep. This is one unique experience to spend the night on a quiet lake, listening to the creaking of the ice and feeling the changing light through the igloo.

Rise and Shine ! Before we enjoy our breakfast at the hotel, we will take a morning walk around Lake Shikaribetsu. Meeting the guide at 6am outside the igloo, we walk around the area and look for traces of winter animals which were active at night. Walking early in the morning also allows us to see the fantastic tree ice and diamond dust.

After breakfast, we check out and get on the chartered bus to head on to Obihiro Station. This bus ride is about an hour and a half. While on the bus, we will go over our experiences throughout this tour and share our comments with each other. Once we arrive at the station, we say our farewells to our guide and head back home.