Lake Toya Area Ecomuseum

The community around Lake Toya lives alongside an active volcano that has erupted several times in living memory, most recently in 2000. Rather than treating this as purely a hazard, local towns have framed the entire area as an ecomuseum where residents and visitors can study volcanic activity and its effects firsthand. The 1910 eruption, for example, produced the geothermal activity that created Lake Toya Hot Spring and Sobetsu Hot Spring. Schools and critical facilities have been relocated to safer ground, and signage throughout the area explains the history and likely future of Mt. Usu eruptions, turning the landscape itself into the exhibit.