Day 2 in Toyako

This morning we had a sleep-in! We had breakfast in the huge dining room- buffet so heaps of different food - then off to the bus which took us up to the crater of a volcano which last erupted in 2001.  You had to catch a cable car to get up the top and then walk a bit further uphill to see the crater which was a bit disappointing as there were no flames just a huge dust bowl!

we thought we walk around to the other side as there was a path but first you had to go down some steps - about 400 of them!  By the time we reached the bottom and saw more steps going up, we decided to give the rest of the walk a miss - the view wasn’t going to improve on the other side!

These are just a few of the steps.

this is the volcano with its top blown off

and this is a lava dome which pushed up through the ground when the volcano erupted.

we could see the mountain covered in snow from our bedroom window.

and would you believe there were cherry blossoms in the streets!

The Main Street of Toyako - so empty even though there were hundreds of people staying at some very big hotels.  I am not sure what they did during the day - whether they were on tours and went on outings during the day.