4139 Travel Guide

Obako at Sounkyo in Daisetsuzan National Park, Kamikawa, Hokkaido, is a columnar-jointed cliff cut through welded tuff by the Ishikari River — a towering rock wall above a roaring plunge pool, paired with 'Kobako' across the water as Sounkyo's signature geological wonder. The viewpoint is free with free parking for a close look up at the wall. Sounkyo, named by Omachi Keigetsu in 1921 from the Ainu for 'river of many waterfalls', runs some 24 km with cliffs about 200 metres high.

Sōunkyō is a gorge in Kamikawa, Hokkaidō, Japan, where the upper Ishikari River has cut into the volcanic plateau of the Daisetsuzan range, leaving columnar cliffs that run for some 24 km inside Daisetsuzan National Park. Two of its waterfalls appear on Japan's list of a hundred great falls: Ryūsei, the 'shooting star', drops as a single powerful shaft, while Ginga, the 'milky way', scatters into silver threads, and the Sōbakudai deck frames both at once. At Ōbako the columnar walls look sliced by a blade. A ropeway and chairlift carry visitors to the seventh station of Mt Kurodake, from where a summer climb reaches alpine flower meadows and a wide view over the Daisetsu peaks; this is among the first places in Japan to turn colour, usually in the second half of September. Hot springs at the mouth of the gorge, known since 1857, support a cluster of inns, and from January to March the Ice Waterfall Festival lights carved ice caves against the snow — one of central Hokkaidō's signature winter events.