Kotan around Lake Shikaribetsu unique to winter appearing in an ice-bound world
2017.12.01
Experience
by Hitomi Yasuda
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Around Lake Shikaribetsu, which locates in the highest elevation, 810m, among the lakes in Hokkaido, an icy village (Kotan) appears only in the mid-winter. What you can enjoy in Kotan are, an open-air bath on ice, Ice Bar, Ice Chapel and an Ice Lodge. They are all made of ice. An open-air bath on ice is very popular every year because you can enjoy a hot bath where the outdoor air temperature reaches minus 20 degrees Celsius. The beauty of the White lake all around and mountains covered with snow spreads right in your front. No other open-air bath can make you feel the appreciation of hot water more than this place.
In Ice Bar, you can enjoy the experience of carving a cup out of a block of ice by yourself. When you carefully put your mouth on the cup you’ve just completed, you might be surprised because it is colder than expected.
Only Kotan in Lake Shikaribetsu can bring you the experience of the coldness unique to the winter. In Ice Chapel, which is made of ice, you will be fascinated with the beautifully shining soft light through the ice and the shimmer of the candles. The wedding ceremony held at Ice Chapel is fantastic and romantic. It is also popular as a photogenic place.
If you want to thoroughly feel the winter in Lake Shikaribetsu, Ice Lodge, where you can stay overnight in a lodge made of ice, is highly recommended. There, you can sleep on a bed made of ice overnight till next morning in the building made of ice. It is definite that you feel so cold, but people have enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime experience in the past.
The ground on which you place your feet flat and the air which you breathe into your lung are far colder than expected. Therefore, the coldness in Kotan provides you the beauty which you have never seen and the surprise which you have never experienced. (Written by Yukari Kanda / Tour coordinator in Shikaoi)
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