Kamuy Lumina
📍 Hokkaido, Kushiro
A 1.2km night walk through the forest by Lake Akan, wired with lights, projection mapping, and sound into an Ainu legend you carry a glowing staff through — the world's first Lumina night walk inside a national park.
Deep in the forest along Lake Akan, inside Akan-Mashu National Park, a 1.2-kilometer trail turns into something else entirely after dark: Kamuy Lumina, a multimedia night walk built by Moment Factory in collaboration with the local Ainu community — the world’s first Lumina night walk staged inside a national park.
Why It’s Interesting
Starting at nightfall, visitors carry a handheld “rhythm staff” through eight zones of forest rigged with lights, projection mapping, and soundscapes that respond to touch and movement — trees glow, water ripples with color, the path itself seems to react. The story woven through the 50-60 minute, roughly hour-long walk is drawn from Ainu legend: the Yukar “Owl & Jaybird,” in which an owl-spirit seeks a messenger to save careless humans from themselves. It opened in July 2019 after more than a year of development with the Ainu community of Lake Akan and Japan’s Ministry of the Environment, built specifically to minimize impact on the forest’s plants and animals.
Best Time to Visit
Late May through early November, when the walk is open; it closes for winter. Showtimes track nightfall, so they shift through the season — check the current schedule before booking.
Getting There
Buses connect Kushiro Station and Kushiro Airport to Akanko Onsen. Meet at the Lumina Ticket Booth near the Marimo no Sato pier — the same shore as the marimo boat tour and the Ainu Kotan — at least 15 minutes before your entry time.
🐿️ Cinnamon was here
Field report
Same traveler who asked about the Ainu Kotan mentioned a nighttime tour with projection mapping, and that turned out to be Kamuy Lumina — a walk through the actual national-park forest after dark, not a stage show pretending to be one.
They gave me a little glowing staff at the start and told me to use it, so I did, and things I tapped — trees, stones, water — lit up and made sound back, like the forest had been quietly rigged the whole time. The trail runs 1.2 kilometers through eight zones, about an hour, telling an old Ainu story about an owl trying to save careless humans from themselves. Socks stayed three trees behind me the entire walk, unconvinced that "the forest lighting up" was a good sign.
Reviewers keep saying to bundle up more than you'd think for a summer evening, so I'm passing that straight on — the forest gets cold once the sun's actually down, staff or no staff.
— Cinnamon 🐿️
📸 Cinnamon's camera roll
Snapshots from our very good boy on the road.
Where it is
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