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Home >> Japan Quest >> Bandaisan
| Bandaisan |
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■Mt. Bandai and Lake Inawashiro Bandai-Asahi National Park is the second largest in Japan, after Hokkaido’s Daisetsuzan. It’s also one of Japan’s top destinations for people trying to make a quick break from the city to commune with nature.Mt. Bandai itself is a large volcano, and although today some of its slopes are laced with ski trails, it is still active, and indeed seemed ready to erupt in 2000, though it's quieted down since. In the last eruption, in 1888, huge flows of rock, mud and ash killed at least 460 people and entirely buried 2 small villages. In the process, though, the material from the eruption created a large plateau, called the Bandai Kogen, which is pitted with more than 300 lakes and marshes where existing watercourses were dammed. Despite the scope of the disaster, the plateau is now one of the most pleasant places in the park, with well-kept trails winding through beech forest and past lakes. Most popular is an easy, 3.7 kilometer trail called the Goshikinuma Nature Trail, which leads to views of a series of lakes, each colored according to its mineral content in shades of blue, green, milky-white and even red. Lake Inawashiro is either the third or fourth largest fresh water lake in Japan, depending on whom you ask. It’s also called Heaven’s Mirror Lake because of the wonderful reflection of Mt. Bandai that appears in the lake when the winds are calm. It’s a popular destination year round, even in winter, when it hosts a group of swans that return every year from Siberia. Other than the natural attractions, there’s not a great deal to do here. Inawashiro Town is a quiet little place whose one real tourist draw seems to be a museum dedicated to Hideyo Noguchi, the famous Japanese doctor who discovered the yellow fever microbe shortly before succumbing to the disease himself, and is pictured on the one thousand yen bill. Nearby, there’s also the Aizu Folklore Museum, showcasing a decent collection of historical artifacts and displays related to the distinctive culture of the region. >>Access Shinjuku===(4 hours, by express bus)====Inawashiro Station Niigata====(90 min. by car)====Bandai kougen, Inawashiro IC -Matt Mangham
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