I arrived at Sounkyo by bus after my Shari stay. Sounkyo is a small town located at the base of many mountains in the part of the island called "Daisetsuzan National Park". This was one of the highlights of my Hokkaido trip in terms of how beautiful the nature was. I arrived at the town which was full of green, yellow, orange and some red - autumn colors everywhere! Super cold place though because of how high it is, be prepared in terms of clothing. The air was amazingly fresh and it really feels like you're in some sort of a mountainous oasis.
I stayed in a hostel called, in an original way, "Sounkyo hostel". Nice place that offers hot meals as well. There's a convenience store about 5-7 min away, but the away to the hostel means you're going uphill so be prepared.
The main thing to do in this town is obviously to go and hike. I took the cable car to the base of Asahi Dake mountain. It's not an easy hike, a lot of stairs to go through, but at the end it's WORTH it.
I was lucky enough to see snow at the mountain top, and I couldn't get enough of the mountain. The entire hike from the bottom to the top, around it and back down probably took around 5-7 hours so be preapred in terms of food, water, snacks, etc. The views are absolutely ridiculous as you can see.
An amazing experience and personally my trip wouldn't be the same without it.
On my 2nd day in Sounkyo I wanted to take it easy so I walked around town and its viscinity and visited big waterfalls called "Ginga" & "Ryusei" waterfalls.
The entire area is beautiful as stated before so walking around was very nice & chilly.
After my Sounkyo stay I took a bus to Asahikawa city.
Fascinating and helpful reading about these towns and destinations in Japan, places I would not have known about reading where to go.