Akan National Park

Akan National Park Review

Volcanoes rise from primeval forests, and lakeside beaches bubble with hot springs in a national park that is unfairly outshone by its neighbors Daisetsu and Shiretoko. In Akan's northern forests, strange, cylindrical algae bob to the surface of Lake Akan. Ainu men pluck and blow eerie music from traditional instruments, while women dancers duck and weave in honor of the red-crested white cranes that fly in every winter, breeding on the wetland on the park's southern border. In summer, it's a hiker's heaven of trails and hot springs; in winter, the lakes freeze over and ice festivals spill out onto the frozen expanses.