Golden Week

During Golden week, I got the chance to go north to Tazawako in Akita prefecture. Tazawako is located near Lake Tazawa. The lake is known for several reasons. First, the lake is almost circular in shape. Second, it's the deepest lake in all of Japan. Third, there is a story which says that a very beautiful young woman desired to maintain her beauty forever. She visited a certain shrine for 100 days before the god of the place told her to go to a certain fountain. She did as she was told, drank from the fountain, and was turned into a dragon. As such, she became the guardian of the lake. Later, her mother, heartbroken, came looking for her. She appeared to her mother and told her she could not come home because she had been turned into a dragon. Nevertheless, she promised her mother plentiful fish in the lake, or that's roughly how the story goes. Some time during the last century a sculpture made a statue of the girl. It's located just off the shore of the lake next to a small shrine (probably not the same shrine as the one in the story).

Statue of Tatsuko on Lake Tazawa, Akita-Ken

Shrine by statue of Tatsuko

The lake has several other sites that I didn't get to. I rented a bike, road around past the shrine, took some time to read, then raced back to get the bike back on time. I didn't know where my starting point was, so I thought that the statue was only about 1/4 of the way around the lake, but it was really halfway around, so I ended up biking 20 km. I was dead and even managed to scrape my knee, but the views of the lake, which is situated in the mountains and has the most beautiful water, was well worth it.

My two friends and I stayed in a hostel, actually it was more like a low-budget motel, there were some adults and kids, and the sleeping quarters were actually rooms that sleep four. Each suite was a single room with a little add-on room with a sink. The main room had a heater, some other random pieces, and a coffee table. The floor is made of tatami mats. You take off your house slippers before going in. One entire wall is made of cupboards and the door. At night, you move the table. Then, you take out mats, blankets, and pillows from the cupboards. You sleep on the floor, or if you manage it, you don't have to move the table. 

We took the Shinkansen to get up to Tazawako and back as well. On the way up, we got unresearved sets since all the seats were reserved. Thankfully, up to Sendai we got seats, but from Sendai to Tazawako (about an hour to an hour and a half) we didn't have any seats, per se. Actually, we sat in the connection section between the cars. I spent most of the time on my feet so I could get some pictures of the countryside, but we got reserved seats on the way back.