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Daisetsuzan NP, Hokkaido
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At 1,139m, Mikuni Pass is the highest pass on a national road in Hokkaido. Its name recalls 3 former provinces—Ishikari, Tokachi and Kitami—whose old borders met in this mountain region.
Matsumi Ohashi, the red curve in the view, is 330m long and stands 30m above the forest. Completed in 1988, it was built span by span with a traveling crane, avoiding huge temporary scaffolding in the national park.
The forest panorama has a human history too: in 2018, the Japan Forest Society recognized the 5,286-hectare Tokachi-Mitsumata forest landscape as Forestry Heritage, highlighting the contrast between primeval forest and logging traces.
Nearby Tokachi-Mitsumata grew to about 1,500 residents during the logging boom. The 1954 Toyamaru Typhoon toppled trees equal to 20–30 years of logging; crews salvaged them, and today just 2 households remain.
Mikuni Pass once had to close in winter. After road improvements and special ice-safety measures, the high, snowy route became open year-round from fiscal 1994—a change that required more than simply clearing a path.
The café beside the pass roasts its own coffee beans and hand-drips each cup, with soft-serve on the menu too. It’s a distinctly cozy stop beside Hokkaido’s highest pass on a national road.
Near the old Tokachi-Mitsumata settlement, park staff have planted more than 190 trees in 17 deer-protected plots since 2011. Some have grown beyond 2m tall as the former settlement gradually returns to forest.
