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Akan-Mashū NP, Hokkaido
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Wakoto was once a volcanic island in Lake Kussharo. Over time, sediment built up between the island and shore, joining them—so today’s peninsula is an island with a land bridge.
Wakoto’s min-min cicadas are thought to be a remnant from 6,000–8,000 years ago, when they lived across warmer Hokkaido. Their breeding site, at the northern edge of their Hokkaido range, became a national Natural Monument on June 9, 1951.
At Oyakotsu Jigoku, volcanic heat still makes itself seen: boiling water bubbles among rocks at the waterline, while steam escapes from cracks in the cliff. The trail brings you close to this active geothermal landscape.
Winter does not silence the band-legged ground crickets near Oyakotsu Jigoku. Geothermal warmth keeps their mossy micro-habitat active year-round, even when these insects are dormant elsewhere in winter.
The peninsula’s earlier Ainu place-name is recorded as Oyakotsu. In 1921, travel writer Omachi Keigetsu visited and supplied the kanji 和琴, now read as Wakoto.
The trail’s forest is home to black woodpeckers. An Ainu name for the bird means “canoe-carving bird deity,” and a tradition says the holes it makes in tree trunks inspired people to hollow logs into canoes.
A katsura tree can keep growing even if its main trunk breaks: new shoots rise around it and develop into replacement trunks. Katsura trees are abundant along the Wakoto trail.
In autumn, fallen katsura leaves give off a surprisingly sweet fragrance, compared with caramel, cotton candy, or brown sugar. The trail’s many katsura trees make this a seasonal treat for the nose, too.
Some flowers usually associated with mountains and highlands in Honshu grow here below 200 meters. Wakoto’s cool regional climate supports these plants, even on a peninsula warmed by volcanic heat.
