About Lake Suwa
Lake Suwa is a lake located in Shimosuwa-cho, Suwa-gun, Okaya City, Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, and is the birthplace of the Tenryu River. The entire lake has a total area of 13.3 square kilometers, with an average depth of 4.7 meters and a maximum depth of 7.2 meters, and a shoreline of 15.9 kilometers, making it the largest lake in Nagano Prefecture.
Lake Suwa is beautiful all year round, but the scenery varies from season to season, and so do the attractions. The shores of Lake Suwa are always popular as a good place for walking and jogging in the green spring and summer and in the autumn when the leaves are falling; and it is also nice to enjoy the beauty of the lake from a small boat as tour boats leave the lake every 30 minutes.
In winter, when the lake is frozen over, fishing for wakame and skating on the ice is a unique sight on Lake Suwa. What is even more amazing is that after the lowest temperature falls below minus 10 degrees for more than 10 consecutive days, the ice cracks as the ice contracts and expands with a loud sound, and the ice rises more than one meter, forming the rare phenomenon of “Mikami Watari”, which is one of the proudest sights of Lake Suwa.
Around Lake Suwa is the Lake Suwa Geyser Center, where visitors can not only see the geyser, which is rare in the world and erupts upward every hour at a height of 40 to 50 meters, but also have the opportunity to watch a slide show about “Mikamiwatari”, which is very exciting. This is a wonderful opportunity to watch a slide show about “Goshindo.
How to get there
Get off at Kamisuwa Station on the JR Chuo Main Line and walk straight from the west exit for 8 minutes.
Tips
To see the sunrise, “sunrise sunrise” can be seen from the Okaya City side in the direction overlooking the Yatsugatake Mountains. To see the setting sun, look at the Suwa Lake from the Suwa City side and you will see the “setting sun” setting on the Okaya City side. Fuji can be seen from the lakeshore in Shimosuwa Town, and on days when there are no waves, you can see “upside-down Fuji moving into Suwa Lake.
You can also enjoy walking around Suwa Lake, and there is also a bicycle path, although it is not yet connected to the lake, so you can enjoy it throughout the four seasons.