Lake Okotanpe Lookout A blue lake glimpsed between the forest birches

On this autumn trip around Hokkaido, I'd brought my car across from Oarai to Tomakomai and was staying in Chitose for a few days. While I was there, my friend, who'd flown in, and I decided to head out one morning to see the autumn leaves. It was about a 20-minute drive from Shikotsuko Onsen. We left National Route 453 for Hokkaido Route 78 and climbed a forest road with bend after bend. The lookout had a car park with room for about 20 cars. When I got out, the cool morning air made me stand up straight.

On a mid-October morning, the first thing I saw as I stood by the railing at the lookout was the lake between the birches. From above, its shape stood out among the trees, and it looked closer than I'd expected. Holding the front of my deep green coat with both hands, I stood beside my friend and peered through the same gap in the trees.

But there's no spot where you can see the whole lake. Apparently, the surrounding old-growth forest blocks the view. Only part of the water shows between the birch trunks, so I took a few steps sideways along the railing. When I moved left, the wooded headland on the lake's right emerged from behind the trunks. A few steps to the right brought more of the water in the foreground into view.

At the opposite end of the railing, my friend beckoned me over. “You can see the far shore from here!” she called. We swapped places and called out what we could see, and little by little, the shape of the lake came together in my mind. Maybe that's the fun of this lookout: piecing together the glimpses when you can't take it all in at once.

The water looks different depending on the weather, the light and where you stand, and that's part of the lake's charm. This morning, blue water peeked through the autumn leaves. As the sun climbed, only the water in the foreground brightened; the far shore stayed shaded by the forest. By then, the part of the shore my friend had spotted earlier was lost in shadow.

Lake Okotanpe lies on the western foothills of Mount Eniwa and is about 5 km around. It was formed when lava from an eruption of Mount Eniwa dammed a river. From the lookout, I could see the wooded slopes rising beyond the lake and understand how water had collected in a hollow ringed by mountains.

A mix of conifers and deciduous broadleaf trees surrounds the lake. That's why some trees were still green among the autumn leaves. Before setting out, I read that the area is a forest ecosystem protection area and also part of the national park's Special Protection Zone. My friend and I pointed out the trees that had turned and the ones still green, one by one. But the birch trunks were easy to spot from every angle.

On the way back, we headed into Chitose and stopped at Morimoto's Chitose Main Store in Chiyoda-cho. I was there for Haskap Jewelry, first made in 1978: thin, crisp cookies sandwich haskap jam and buttercream, with chocolate around the edges. They also had a haskap parfait topped with Haskap Jewelry and haskap berries, and my friend couldn't take her eyes off it.

Back at the car, we unwrapped a Haskap Jewelry cookie and split it. First came the crisp cookie, then the tart sweetness of the haskap and the richness of the buttercream. My friend asked, “So what shape do you think the lake was, after all?” I traced the outline we'd pieced together at the lookout on the back of the box. We disagreed about where the headland was, so the verdict will have to wait until next time.