Akan Ainu Kotan 阿寒湖アイヌコタン
Every year, in the first three days of October, Ainu from all over Hokkaido celebrate the Kamuinomi ritual here and return to the lake the marimo, the alga declared a Special Natural Monument of Japan in 1950 which, in its mature form, grows wild in no other lake in the world.
An Ainu village founded in 1959, when local landowners made the land available free of charge and allowed Ainu, who had come from various parts of Hokkaido, to sell wood carvings to tourists. It is, in the encyclopedia's words, ‘店舗の立ち並ぶ商店街であり、人の暮らす集落である’ (a shopping street lined with shops, and at the same time a settlement where people live): not a paid attraction, with free entry. It is in Kushiro, next to the Lake Akan hot spring area; address 〒085-0467 北海道釧路市阿寒町阿寒湖温泉4丁目7-19.
Hokkaido
Lake Akan Bus center
