On our second day with the rental car, we visited the Sounkyo Onsen Village, another part of Daisetsuzan National Park, to see what we could find.

I apparently didn’t quite know where we were going or what we were doing. Whatever.

The village itself was lovely, though we really were interested in getting lost for a while in the nature of Daisetsuzan National Park.

We took the gondola (they call it a ropeway) up the hill for some better views.

Better views there were, indeed.

Things got crazy, though, when we decided to take the chair lift. We hesitated for a while, having already spent the Yen riding the gondola, and not knowing what lay ahead. We’re so glad we did.

No joke, this was totally by accident. We discovered at the top of the chair lift that there was a trailhead. All signs were in Japanese only. We decided to see where it went.

It turns out the end of the hike wasn’t just more of the same view. After about an hour hiking in the snow, we made it to the top. At the peak we were rewarded with spectacular views of the surrounding mountain range.

Holy cow, Hokkaido! All in all, a successful day.