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Bishamon-numa Pond
among Goshiki-numa Ponds
(the Five Colored Lakes)
We left Hotel de Premiere Minowa at 9:30 am.
Our bus drove north on the local road for 1 hour and arrived at Goshiki-numa
Ponds near Hibara Lake.
The tempereture was 5 degrees below the previous day of over 25 degrees
Celsius, and additionally it was windy.
All of the members looked wearing long sleeves.
Wikipedia says about Goshiki-numa Ponds like this.
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Goshiki-numa is a cluster of five volcanic lakes situated at the foot of
Mount Bandai in the center of the lake district of Bandai-kogen, Kitashiobara,
Fukushima Pref.
Goshiki-numa was formed when Mount Bandai erupted on July 15, 1888, destroying
dozens of villages and killing approximately 500 people while creating
hundreds of lakes and tarns.
The eruption completely rearranged the landscape, creating the Bandai-kogen
plateau and damming local rivers. The eruption imparted mineral deposits
to the Five Colored Lakes (Goshiki-numa) giving each of them their own
delicate color, ranging from reddish green to cobalt blue. The colors of
each lake mysteriously fluctuate throughout the year with the weather.
Since the eruption, Goshiki-numa has become a popular tourist destination.
An approximately four-km walking path from Lake Bishamon, the largest of
the eight lakes, to Lake Hibara, affords people a view of all the lakes.
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Tourists, hikers, young and adults. The starting point of the walking path
was full of people.
The walking path is nearly 4 km, starting from Bishamon Pond, then along
Red Pond, Midoro Pond, Dragon Pond, Benten Pond, Lapis Lazuli Pond, Blue
Pond and Willow Pond. The finishing point is the bus stop of Ura-bandai
Plateau. It takes 1 hour and a half by slow walking.
Our party walked only around Bishamon Pond about 1 hour viewing the nature
closely.
According to a certain column (uchiyama. info) about Bishamon Pond:
| This pond is colorless and transparent, but acid mineral springs gush out
from the bottom. Therefore, it contains a lot of sulfate ion and chlorine
ion. So, it shows milky white and under the daylight blue white. |
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| Altitude |
Circumstance |
Depth |
| 780m |
4km |
13m |
Water
temperature |
Transparency |
Water
color |
| 15.5℃ |
6.4ｍ |
Cobalt blue |
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| Bishmon-numa, the largest pond in Goshiki-numa, is located at the east
end of the walking path, and the area is about 100 thousand square meters.
Its water goes to Inawashiro Lake. |
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A resident staff of a certain photo shop happened to be a guide for us luckily.
He had a witty talk with abundant knowledge and information. He was more
than a pro. Stopping at key points, he explained politely and energetically
making everyone laugh. He even performed a picture-story show.
He proceeded along the pond seeing Mt. Bandai beyond on the left. The path
along the pond had such a slope that the walk was not comfortable, but
thanks to the photo staff, we got far more grace.
Though he introduced many flowers, weeds and trees peculiar here showing
and touching them, it was regrettably beyond my understanding.
The walk was in good condition under the perfect weather. The color of
the pond was what you can see in the photos. However, the best color is
under the cloudy sky, accoding to the staff.
We really enjoyed the scenery of the nature here.
I would like to say, "We were in the beauties of mountains, rivers,
grasses, trees, flowers, birds and everything."
But the reality was that flowers were sparsely open and no birds' song.
The trees and weeds peculiar to Goshiki-numa Ponds were lively, though.
The staff said "Bears are residents, and who appear often are human.
We are proud of no fatal accident until now."
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I actually visited Goshiki-numa Ponds 13 years ago in August 2002.
It was one of the tours following Matsuo Basho's "The Narrow Road
to Oku". We dropped in here on the way back from Mogami River and
Yamadera (Risshakuji) Temple in Yamagata Prefecture.
Please allow me to reproduce the part of that travelogue.
I walked from Bishamon-numa Pond to Yanagi-numa Pond through the flat course
of 3.6 km at an altitude of 750 - 850 meters. It took me one hour and a
half from 1:00 p.m. Emiko, my wife, took a rest because of fatigue.
I made a carefree walk on the mountain trail covered by thick woods, seeing
sunshine filtering through the leaves here and there.
Totally eight ponds. Each of them had their own colors. I did not know
such changes of water color. Various greens, light blue, gray, navy blue,
..... Even the same pond subtly had different colors. |
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That is all about the tour celebrating birthdays for 3 days. We nodded each other, admitting this kind of slow and comfortable trip was nice for a change.
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Going back
After walking along Bishamon-numa Pond, we drove 15 minutes and arrived
at the restaurant "Iwahashi of soba noodle" near Bandai Plateau
Interchange. According to the attendant, it was well noted by its dishes
of "Wedding Soba" and "5-Step Soba".
Our couple ordered "5-Step Soba".
There were 5 kinds of sauce: green onion and dried red pepper, sesame seed
and walnut, shiitake mushroom and yuzu, minced and fermented soybeans,
grated daikon and spicy red pepper.
We dipped soba noodles served on a wickerwork plate into each of the sauces
and ate them. Taste? My expectation might have been too much.
A lot of people were in there besides our members.
Different from boiled rice, soba noodles served on a wickerwork plate,
especially, have to be eaten quickly after cooked. This must have been
difficult in such crowded circumstances there.
- - - - - - - - - -
The purpose of this trip was all over at 1:00 p.m. Now, we are going straight
back.
The large bus ran and ran all the way on Tohoku Expressway, then on Gaikan Road, and finally our couple got down in front of the Citizen's Theater in Matsudo City nearly at 4:00 p.m.
Thank you very much, Ms. K, an attendant, and Mr. B, a safety driver all
the way.
The trains were such a good timing on both Joban and Musashino Line that we could arrive at Shin-Urayasu Station at 5:30 p.m. where we bought the food for dinner. We finally got home at 6:30 p.m.
My dinner is drinking (banshaku) as usual with side dishes. Naturally the
alcohol tonight is "Single-molt Miyagi-kyo" bought at the Miyagi-kyo
Distillery of Nikka.
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