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AKAN KOHAN |
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The compact onsen resort of AKAN KOHAN , on the southern shore of
Akan-ko and bursting with ritzy hotels and giftshops, is the most
commercialized part of the national park, but is worth considering as a
base if you plan to hike up the nearby peaks of Me-Akan-dake (1499m) and
O-Akan-dake (1371m). At the western end of town, a ten-minute walk from
the bus station, is the Ainu Kotan , a depressingly fake Ainu "village",
which is little more than a short road of giftshops selling identical
carved wood figures. Two hundred Ainu are said to live here. Visitors
can watch a performance of traditional dance and music in the thatched
chise (house) at the top of the shopping parade, and there's a tiny
museum (daily 10am-10pm; ¥300) in a hut beside the chise , where the
most interesting exhibits are the traditional Ainu costumes.
Just beyond the Ainu Kotan is the Akan Forest and Lake Culture Centre (daily
10am-5pm; ¥500), a small exhibition area with an impressive slide show
of owls and some excellent examples of woodcarvings - much better than
those you'll see in the giftshops. Look out also for a tank of marimo ,
the velvety green weedballs that are indigenous to Akan-ko. Much is made
of the marimo in Akan Kohan; the lake is one of the few places in the
world where this weed is found and you can buy bottled baby marimo in
all the giftshops. It can take two hundred years for the weedballs to
grow to the size of baseballs.
Dedicated botanists might want to take the boat trip across the lake to
the small island of Churui-shima, where the Marimo Exhibition Centre
(daily 7.30am-5.30pm; ¥400, or ¥1520 including the return boat trip) has
an underwater viewing tank. If you're lucky, you'll see the marimo balls
bobbing up to the surface of the lake to breathe. Back in Akan Kohan,
there's yet more marimo on display in the visitor centre (daily 9am-5pm)
at the eastern end of town, but it's more interesting to head along the
pleasant woodland trails which start behind the centre and lead to the
Bokke , a small area of bubbling mud pools beside the lake.
Many of the hotels in Akan Kohan allow day visitors into their onsen
baths, usually between 11am and 3pm. This will cost around ¥1500 at
either the New Akan Hotel Shangrila or the Akan Grand Hotel , which has
the most elaborate tubs, including roof-top baths for women and a
landscaped rotemburo with a view across the lake, for men.
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