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Hidakasanmyaku Erimo Tokachi NP, Hokkaido
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Much of Mount Apoi is peridotite from the upper mantle, tens of kilometres below the surface. Plate collisions raised it into daylight about 13 million years ago—so this trail crosses rock from deep inside Earth.
Samani Ainu tradition says villagers lit a summit fire while praying for deer; Apoi is linked to ape-o-i, “place where fire is.” Hokkaido also records the older Matne-sir (“woman mountain”), paired with Pinne-sir (“man mountain”).
At only 810 m, Apoi hosts about 80 alpine-plant species, with nearly 20 endemic species or forms. Sea fog, strong winds and thin, nickel-rich soil help create high-mountain conditions near the Pacific.
Samani’s tsubu-bento revives a lunch sold at Samani Station in the 1970s, pairing local tsubu sea snails with Apoi glutinous rice. It’s an edible link between the mountain trail and the fishing coast.
The Himechamadaraseseri skipper is found in Japan only around Apoi, though its wider range reaches Europe and northeast Asia. Discovered here in 1973, it became a Natural Monument in 1975; adults appear only briefly around May.
At the shelter, 375 m above sea level, alpine flowers already appear. Just 5 m seaward, a peridotite outcrop displays pale plagioclase layers that weather more slowly than the surrounding rock.
First known from a single shell found in 1970, the endemic Apoi Maimai wasn’t seen alive until 1994. Adults are about 1 cm wide, with brown shells covered in fine, stiff hairs, and live among peridotite cracks.
Ezo pikas usually live among high-mountain rocks, yet Apoi’s foothills hold them at just 50 m above sea level—the lowest recorded habitat for the species in Hokkaido. Here, an alpine survivor reaches almost to the coast.
In the Apoi Dream Project, Samani junior-high students grow alpine flowers from seed and test what helps them sprout, then plant seedlings in a 5th-station restoration plot. Their classroom science helps revive the mountain’s flower fields.
Apoi’s alpine-plant community became a Special Natural Monument in 1952. To protect rare Hidaka-sō from trampling, the protected habitat outside the marked trail has been closed to entry since 2006.
Local principal Tsushima Masao spent his days off collecting Apoi plants and mailing specimens to universities. Hidaka-sō was once nicknamed Tsushima-sō after him; a monument near the trailhead honors this teacher-naturalist.
