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Shikotsu-Tōya NP., Hokkaido
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Usu’s 1910 eruption gave birth to Lake Toya’s lakeside spring: during the upheaval, one patch of lake water reached 24°C. The first inn opened in 1917, when the resort was still called Tokotan Onsen.
A geothermal well in the onsen district reaches about 135°C. Its heat helps generate electricity, cook onsen eggs and supply the resort’s shared hot-spring network.
Toyako’s white oshiruko gives the classic sweet soup a snowy twist: family confectioner Okadaya blended local white beans with milk. The creation won a national specialty-product award in 2006.
The long-run fireworks began in 1982 as a recovery plan, not an ancient custom. After Usu’s 1977 eruption and deadly 1978 mudflows kept visitors away, the resort chose regular evening shows to bring them back.
An Ainu tradition recorded by the onsen association tells of Labushi-Oyau, a winged serpent in Lake Toya. After 2 youths confronted it on Nakajima, it became the lake’s guardian dragon.
Hokkaido’s Ainu culture guide explains Toya as “to-ya”: to means “lake” and ya means “shore.” The name describes the lakeside landscape—and long predates the hot-spring resort.
Usu’s 2000 eruption changed Lake Toya Onsen’s water temperature, level and chemistry. Hokkaido geologists monitor such shifts as clues from underground—a hot spring can act like a volcanic messenger.
The resort’s bathwater is a shared utility: 12 wells feed a central tank for hotels and other users. Heat pumps also recover warmth from used bathwater, cooling the water sent to the sewer from about 35°C to 17°C.
In 1929, an electric railway connected Abuta Station—now JR Toya Station—to the hot-spring resort. The line closed in 1941, but its triangular-roof station remained a local symbol for years.
The lakeside sculpture trail began with a farewell gift: in 1984, former patients of a closing prefectural teachers’ sanatorium helped erect Kan Yasuda’s Rebirth, the park’s first sculpture.
Kan Yasuda’s 1987 lakeside sculpture Ishinki marks both recovery from Usu’s 1977 eruption and remembrance of the 3 people killed by mudflows in October 1978.
Lake Toya’s fireworks have a local climate twist: their CO₂ emissions are offset with J-Credits created by the hot-spring cooperative through its geothermal power project.
