One of Hokkaido's 179 towns
Shikaoi鹿追町
The lake in the sky and its ice village
Tokachi region · Hokkaido's breadbasket — big skies, gardens and food at the source.
Shikaoi opens onto Lake Shikaribetsu, Tokachi's 'lake in the sky' — home to a unique native trout and a village built of ice each winter.
Shikaoi rises from the western Tokachi plain into Daisetsuzan National Park, and its whole identity is tied to Lake Shikaribetsu, the highest natural lake in Hokkaido, ringed by volcanic peaks. The lake has its own trout, the Miyabe char, boulder fields where pikas call in summer, and a small hot-spring settlement on the shore. In winter the frozen surface hosts an ice village built and dismantled every year. Down on the plain the town grows soba and raises dairy cattle. Come for the mountains, stay for a lakeside bath.
- Region
- Tokachi (十勝)
- From New Chitose Airport
- ~161 km · 2.5 h summer / 2.9 h winter
- From Sapporo
- ~186 km · 2.9 h summer / 3.4 h winter
- Best season in Tokachi
- June–September for gardens and farm country in full growth; winter brings dry blue-sky cold and hot springs.
Shikaoi at a glance
Drive estimates: straight-line × 1.35, at 65 km/h (summer) / 55 km/h (winter). How we calculate
What to see in Shikaoi
Lake Shikaribetsu
然別湖
Hokkaido's highest natural lake, sitting in a volcanic basin at the southern edge of Daisetsuzan National Park. Sightseeing boats run in the warm months, canoe tours in the mornings, and the water freezes solid by January.
Shikaribetsu Kotan
然別湖コタン
Each winter, roughly January to March, a temporary village of ice is built on the frozen lake, with an ice bar, an open-air bath on the ice and other buildings made of ice and snow. It melts away by spring.
Higashi-Nupukaushi and the pika
東ヌプカウシヌプリとナキウサギ
The peaks around the lake are climbable in a few hours, and their boulder slopes are home to the naki-usagi pika, a small relic of the ice age that whistles from the rocks in summer and autumn.
Michi-no-Eki Shikaoi
道の駅しかおい
The roadside station on Route 274 in the town centre, next to the town's art museum devoted to a local farmer-painter, with soba, dairy products and vegetables from the fields around it.
Getting to Shikaoi
About 45 minutes by car from Obihiro on National Route 274, and around an hour from Tokachi-Obihiro Airport. Lake Shikaribetsu is a further 30 minutes up a mountain road from the town centre; buses run from Obihiro. There is no railway in Shikaoi, and the lake road can close in heavy snow.
Tokachi region: Fly to Tokachi-Obihiro Airport or take the JR limited express from Sapporo (about 2.5 hours). A car unlocks the garden road.
When to visit Shikaoi
January to March for the ice village. June to October for the lake, boat trips, hikes and pikas, with autumn colour peaking around early October. Late summer to autumn on the plain for soba harvest and the new-crop noodles that follow.
What to eat in Shikaoi
Shikaoi soba, grown on the plain and served at the roadside station and small shops, is the town's specialty. Dairy is the other pillar, with cheese and ice cream from local farms. Lake Shikaribetsu's Miyabe char is protected and appears only in limited seasons.
Shikaoi in context: the Tokachi region
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Tokachi is agricultural Hokkaido at full scale: a vast inland plain where the fields run to the horizon and much of what Japan eats is grown. Obihiro, its capital, invented butadon — the caramelized pork rice bowl — and keeps the world's only banei draft-horse racing.