Sounkyo Gorge

Sounkyo cuts through the northern edge of Daisetsuzan, Japan's largest national park, and its walls are columnar joints - vertical hexagonal columns formed as thick volcanic rock cooled - running for about twenty-four kilometres and rising a hundred metres and more above the road. Two waterfalls, Ginga and Ryusei, drop off the wall side by side near the village and are known together as the paired falls; a steep path climbs to a platform where both are visible at once. The onsen village sits in the gorge floor and is the base for the ropeway and chairlift up Kurodake, which puts walkers at 1,520 metres and onto the trails across the Daisetsuzan plateau - the first place in Japan where autumn colour arrives each year, usually in mid-September. In winter an ice festival builds lit ice structures on the frozen river bed.

What you actually see

• Columnar walls - hexagonal rock columns running twenty-four kilometres.
• The paired falls - Ginga and Ryusei dropping side by side off the wall.
• The Kurodake ropeway - access to 1,520 metres and the Daisetsuzan plateau.
• The earliest autumn - colour arriving here before anywhere else in Japan.

When to go

Mid-September for the first autumn colour; June to October otherwise. Two days.

Honest expectations

The onsen village is small and dated in parts. Ropeway and chairlift close in wind and cloud. The plateau above is real mountain terrain with fast weather changes. Autumn weekends are heavily booked.

Nearby

Asahidake is south in the same park; Asahikawa is west.