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Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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Three local young people began Shikaribetsu Kotan by building igloos for fun in 1980; the first village opened in 1982. Each winter’s ice-and-snow buildings melt back into the lake in spring.
Lake Shikaribetsu is the only home of Miyabe char, whose gills evolved 26 comb-like filters for plankton—more than the 21–22 typical of Hokkaido’s Dolly Varden. A volcanic lake shaped a very particular fish.
At lakeside Hotel Fusui, oshorokoma is served whole and salt-grilled as a Shikaribetsu specialty. The hotel says its fish are raised in springwater at the lake’s foot—a local taste with a local source.
A White Snake Princess story recorded by Shikaoi Town recounts a famine in which a white snake guides Ainu villagers to Lake Shikaribetsu, where oshorokoma and crayfish save them; a goddess warns them to take the fish only in dire need.
Signal crayfish spread around Lake Shikaribetsu after being spotted near its lakeside hot-spring area around 1993. In a 5-day cleanup in 2020, park staff and volunteers removed 12,996 of them.
The White Snake Princess dance began in 1972 as a homegrown local performance. Its first snake was made from wire loops wrapped in white curtain cloth, with scales drawn on by hand; a professional parent snake followed in 1973.
Near the lake, wind caves can breathe out air around 2°C even in midsummer. Beneath neighboring Mt. West Nupukaushinupuri, underground ice has been dated to about 4,000 years old—a remarkably ancient chill in the rocks.
At about 810 m, Lake Shikaribetsu is Hokkaido’s highest lake and Daisetsuzan National Park’s only natural lake. Volcanoes blocked a river, leaving a wonderfully irregular shore with 9 bays.
When the lake is calm, Mt. Tenbo’s reflection completes its mountain outline into a pair of lips. That’s why it is nicknamed “Lip Mountain”—a lake-and-mountain sight that changes with the water.
One Ainu-language interpretation of Shikaribetsu traces the name to the outlet river: si-kari-pet, “river that turns itself.” The name fits the river’s broad semicircular curve toward the Tokachi River.
At the lake’s special fishery, every Miyabe char must go back into the water. Anglers also report their catch data, turning limited fishing into a population-monitoring tool for this lake-only fish.
A hydroelectric station drawing water from Lake Shikaribetsu began operating in 1953. Its first powerhouse used a rare twin-wheel Pelton turbine to harness a 265.8 m drop, helping ease the postwar electricity shortage.
