About Onuma National Park
Onuma National Park is located in the middle of Hokkaido’s Watashima Peninsula and is a nature park with the entire center extended to have Onuma, Onuma Junsainuma Shichie Town, and Kabe Morikoma Nature Abundance.
It is about 20 km from the center of Hakodate and about 33 km from Hakodate Airport. JR Onuma Park Station is used as a transportation base. In addition to the National Highway No. 5 passed as the main road, Hakodate direction is connected by the Hakodate New Road, which is a car-only road, and the Hokkaido Expressway, which is a distance of 7 km in the direction of Sapporo in 2012 opened Onumakoen exchange.
Hokkaido Shinkansen, which opened “New Hakodate Hokuto Station” on March 26, 2016, is a distance of 10 km.
How to get there
20 minutes by JR express train to Onuma Park Station, about 1 minute walk away.
Fare
Free of charge
Tips
The journey from Hakodate to Sapporo is a long one, but there is a stop at Onuma National Park, which is less crowded, so you can take a leisurely stroll.
There is a place to store suitcases at the Onuma Park JR station for 500 yen, and there is a tourist case next to it where large luggage can be stored manually for 300 yen a piece. However, there are several car rental booths across the street, and it seems that you can store your luggage for free when you rent a car, so it’s best to ask in advance.
The center of Onuma Park is a pedestrian zone, but you can ride a bike around the perimeter, and Lake Onuma is much smaller than Toyako, so it takes about an hour to ride around. Although the bicycles are for rent, they are good to ride, and the rental bikes here in Onuma Park are not only no deposit, but also no lock, and the owner says they won’t be lost by the roadside!
The song “A Thousand Winds” was inspired by Onuma Park! It is indeed a place where you can calm down. If you don’t have a lot of time, don’t ride your bike around the week. Many places can’t see the lake due to tree cover, and there are only a few spots where you can take pictures of the lake. If you just walk around the central area, leave an hour to an hour and a half is enough!
On the way to Hakodate from Noboribetsu, you will pass through Onuma National Park. It is the smallest national park in Hokkaido and is only 20 minutes away from Hakodate by JR train. Onuma National Park is one of the three new scenic spots in Japan, where the Emperor Meiji visited Hokkaido, and consists of Onuma, Konuma and Ulnuma, 126 islands and 32 lakes and bays.
Near Onuma Park is the still active Komagatake Volcano, which erupted to create the Onuma and Onuma Weirs. There are countless islands of various sizes in the lake, some of which are connected to the land by bridges and can be reached on foot or by bicycle, while large cruise boats can be taken on Onuma Lake and boating tours can be taken on Onuma Lake.
We mainly visited Lake Onuma during the harsh Hokkaido winter, when there was a thin layer of floating ice on the surface of the lake, and flocks of wild ducks stayed calmly on the surface of the lake, seemingly sheltering from the cold wind and cold.
Most of the tree branches around the lake are bare, presenting a picture of the beauty of Hokkaido’s dead season. Hiking along the lake, breathing in the fresh and pleasant air, stepping on the red dead leaves and branches on the ground, occasionally making a crunching sound. Onuma looks quite large from the map, and it would take a few hours to hike a week or ride a bike. We just walked one of the corners, which was a short intimate encounter
