McGregor Musings: Volcanic destruction & beauty

Once again we woke to new morning mercies - our Japanese tiny house was rain proof and the rain had stopped.

The Minister brought variety to our breakfast routine - a different convenience store - Seico Tokako. Choosing yet more variety we walked along the promenade, enjoying the lake and the statues more than we did from inside the sweet shop through the rain yesterday.

Fun fact - Toyako has been here for over a hundred years since the 1910 earthquake revealed the potential of the thermal waters for an onsen. Bizarrely in 2008 the G8 meeting of the leaders of the world biggest economies was held here, thought I doubt they spent their money on the breakfast buffet at Seico convenience store.

Enough about breakfast.

The 2000 eruption produced a mud slide which destroyed apartment blocks, roads and bridges. Much of this has been preserved for the volcanic remnants walk.

We were struck by the destructive power of the earth and found looking into the destroyed but preserved homes decidedly eerie.

(side of apartment block damage by the torn away bridge which came to a stop in the distance)

Leaving Lake Toya behind, we drove on to Makkari for the high point of our time in Hokkaido - our ascent up Mt Yotei to stay the night at the refuge hut.

Mt Yotei is known as Ezo-Fuji, because of its striking resemblance to Japan's favourite mountain - Mt Fuji (Ezo is the old name for Hokkaido).

Remembering our view of Mt Fuji from the ropeway at Hakone and from the Shinkansen:

We immediately saw the resemblance:

The forecast was for no rain and a relatively mild night, so we were surprised and disappointed to arrive at the base in steady rain. Was a 4 hour ascent even worth doing?

Refusing to be deterred, we set off in our rain coats

and thankfully the rain did stop after 20 minutes. It was slow going for 3 hours as we ascended over 1200 metres, though we admired the ever changing vegetation.

But when we emerged above the clouds to glorious sunshine, it was worth it!

Even more so when we went past the small glaciers on the way to the refuge hut.

The hut keeper was expecting us and greeted us warmly, showing us around the new but basic hut and giving us directions to the crater and the summit - another 2 hour round trip - there was just enough time before wanted to be back to see the sunrise.

Up at the crater's edge we came across the ruins of the forner refuge hut

and several glaciers in the crater, as well as a pool of water at the bottom.

Apparently some people ski down the crater in the winter.

Conscious of the limited time, we followed the signs to the summit, and it wasn't long before we found it.

But due to the growing fog and our limited Japanese, it soon became evident that we had peaked too early, for we found a new summit

and another

Until finally we reached the real summit

Visibility was just enough to take this photo and we had about 20 minutes left to scramble back through the fog over boulders before sunset. By now we had given up being able to see the sunset, but we at least wanted to arrive back before dark. I was beginning to wonder whether the whole adventure was rather dangerous and tried to reassure myself by running through all the warm clothes and water we had with us, in case have to spend the night on top of the mountain.

What a wonderful surprise greeted us when we reached the other side of the crater and headed down towards the refuge hut. Not only was the sun visible but the sunset above the clouds was insanely beautiful.