Lake Akan to Kushiro

27 September 2026

After checking out in the morning, we wandered around the shops near the hotel before walking towards the Akankohan Eco-museum Center and tourist information area. There is a small walking trail from here called the Bokke Walking Trail, and since we had some time before leaving Lake Akan, we decided to take it.

The name bokke refers to the bubbling volcanic mud and gases coming up through the ground. Lake Akan sits inside the Akan Caldera, part of Akan-Mashu National Park, a landscape shaped by a long history of volcanic activity. The Bokke is one of those places where you can actually see that volcanic activity rather than simply reading about it: steam rises from the ground and mud bubbles in the pools, with temperatures close to 100°C. The official trail is quite easy, and the main Bokke area is only about a 15-minute walk from the Akankohan Eco-museum Center.

It was an easy walk, and I liked seeing the lake through the trees with the steam rising nearby. There was something quite strange about having a peaceful lakeside walk while the ground was quietly producing all this heat.

And because our visit happened to overlap with KAMUY LUMINA, we even came across some of the equipment used for the evening light experience. KAMUY LUMINA is a night walk through the forest around Lake Akan, using lights, projections, sound and interactive elements to tell a story connected with Ainu culture. It was amusing to see some of the equipment in daylight and realise how much of the magical-looking experience is carefully constructed around the natural landscape.

Unfortunately, we did not see any deer, although some Google reviews mentioned that this could happen along the trail. Fortunately, we also did not see any bears.

I had actually been slightly apprehensive about walking through the forest because I had read about bear warnings around the area last year. So perhaps not seeing either animal was the best possible result for me.

After the trail, we continued wandering around Akankohan, the small town beside Lake Akan. It is a very small place, but I did not find it boring because there was plenty to browse, particularly around Akanko Ainu Kotan.

There are shops selling Ainu-inspired and traditional crafts, wood carvings, accessories and other handmade pieces. What I found interesting was that Ainu Kotan is not simply a recreated tourist village. It is an actual Ainu community and a place where Ainu cultural traditions continue to be practised and developed. The community includes craft shops, restaurants, cultural facilities and the Ainu Theater Ikor, while contemporary artists continue to work with traditional wood carving, embroidery and Ainu patterns.

The relationship between the crafts and the natural environment also makes more sense when you know a little about Ainu culture. Traditional Ainu life was closely connected with the forests, rivers, lakes and wildlife around the community, and materials from nature were used for clothing, tools, houses and everyday objects. Ainu Kotan’s present-day artisans continue to work with those traditions while creating new designs rather than simply reproducing old objects.

Oh, and we also saw a fox at the parking lot looking for food.

After walking around town, we reached the Lake Akan sightseeing cruise terminal and decided to take the boat out to see the Marimo Exhibition and Observation Center on Churui Island.

The cruise was quite windy and chilly, which was probably not surprising for late September. The Lake Akan cruise takes about 85 minutes and includes a stop at Churui Island, where the exhibition centre allows visitors to see marimo up close and learn about their biology. The marimo of Lake Akan are particularly significant because they are designated as a Special Natural Monument of Japan.

Marimo are the strange green spherical algae that have become one of Lake Akan’s symbols. Seeing them in the exhibition centre was interesting because the attraction is not simply about looking at a cute green ball; it also explains how the spherical forms develop, grow and change in the lake.

After the cruise, we went back to explore Ainu Kotan a little more and eventually stopped at one of the restaurants serving Ainu dishes. We tried a dish with venison. It was okay — interesting to try, but I wouldn’t say it became the highlight of the day.

By then, it was time to leave Lake Akan and drive to Kushiro.

The drive from Lake Akan to Kushiro is roughly 80 minutes in normal conditions, so having a car made the transition fairly straightforward. It was also one of those days when driving worked better for us because we had already spent the morning walking, taking the cruise and wandering around town.

We arrived in Kushiro in time to check into the hotel and then headed out again towards Nusamai Bridge for sunset.

Nusamai Bridge crosses the lower reaches of the Kushiro River and is one of the city’s best-known landmarks. The current bridge is actually the fifth version, completed in 1976, and its railings feature four bronze sculptures representing the four seasons. The bridge has become particularly well known as a place to watch the sun go down over the Kushiro River and harbour.

There were already quite a few people gathered on the bridge, all trying to find a good position for photographs.

We were a little late, so I thought I had missed the best spot. But people were kind enough to move over and give me a little space to have a look and take some pictures.

The sunset was beautiful, although I have to admit it was not quite as breathtaking as I had imagined from all the descriptions of Kushiro’s famous sunsets. Perhaps the clouds changed the atmosphere, or perhaps I have simply seen some very beautiful sunsets elsewhere.

The long beach at Tangier in Morocco remains quite memorable for me because the sunlight seems to stretch across the entire shoreline. The sunsets I saw around the Okinawan islands were beautiful in a completely different way too, with the sea and islands creating their own backdrop.

So perhaps Kushiro did not suddenly become the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen. But I was still glad that we made it to Nusamai Bridge and caught it.

After that, we walked towards JR Kushiro Station because I had another small piece of travel planning to sort out.

I had already pre-purchased a ticket for the sightseeing train from Toro to Kushiro, and I wanted to buy the ticket for the opposite direction as well. The online train timings looked a little strange to me, so rather than trying to figure everything out from the website, I decided it would be easier just to go to the station.

That turned out to be a very good decision.

We could not quite figure out the ticket machine, so we went to the ticket office. That was when the ticket operator told us that the train had been cancelled and offered us a refund.

And this was one of those moments when a small decision can completely change a travel day.

I had received no notification that I had noticed, and nothing I had seen while checking the timings had made the cancellation obvious to me. The information was probably somewhere, but I simply had not seen it.

Imagine if we had bought the ticket from Kushiro to Toro, travelled all the way out to Toro, waited there for several hours for the sightseeing train to Kushiro, and only then discovered that the train was cancelled.

That would have been a very different story.

It was especially worth checking at the station because the Kushiro Shitsugen Norokko Train has been undergoing changes to its operations, with JR Hokkaido announcing that its long-running Norokko service would eventually be replaced as part of its sightseeing-train changes. For a trip involving a seasonal sightseeing train, checking the actual operating status shortly before travel is therefore particularly important.

So, Plan B: we would drive tomorrow instead.

And actually, this felt like a blessing in disguise.

By this point, we were pretty tired anyway. Rather than going out again for dinner, we stopped at a convenience store, bought some food and brought everything back to the hotel.

It was not a particularly glamorous ending to the day, but after Bokke, a boat cruise, Ainu Kotan, a sunset and an unexpected cancelled train, convenience-store dinner in the hotel room felt perfectly reasonable.

Sometimes travelling smoothly is not about everything going according to plan. Sometimes it is about discovering that the plan has changed before it becomes a problem.

Transport & ticket notes

• Lake Akan → Kushiro: Driving is a convenient option; the official Lake Akan tourism information gives roughly 80 minutes by car from JR Kushiro Station to the Bokke area, although actual journey time depends on road and weather conditions.
• Bokke Walking Trail: The main Bokke is around 15 minutes on foot from the Akankohan Eco-museum Center, with the wider trail continuing towards the cruise dock.
• Marimo Cruise: The sightseeing cruise is about 85 minutes and includes the stop at Churui Island. Because it is seasonal and can be affected by conditions, check the current sailing schedule before going.
• Nusamai Bridge: It is free to visit and about 15 minutes’ walk from JR Kushiro Station; there is no dedicated parking at the bridge itself.
• Sightseeing train: Check the operating status immediately before travelling rather than relying only on the timetable or a previously purchased ticket. JR Hokkaido has announced changes to the Kushiro Shitsugen Norokko service during FY2026.