Tazawa ko

Lake Tazawa, or Tazawa ko as it is known in Japanese, is a caldera (volcanic crater) lake, and the deepest lake in Japan.  It is also apparently the lake with the second clearest water in Japan, though I am sceptical about how this could be determined. (Both Japan and China seem to enjoy ranking worthy sites -  'the five most scenic, the 3 best..., the 50 most.....' ) Scepticism aside, it was a worthy destination.
Lake Tazawa is embedded in folk mythology, though I will have to get a refresh from Hiro before attempting to write about it... it involved Lake Tazawa, Lake Towada (on the border of Akita and Aomori) and Lake Hachirotaro (a former lake in the west of Akita that was reclaimed for rice cultivation after the war). Beyond that I need to check.  My brief internet checkings give different accounts.

Tazawako used to have unique fish species. In the 1940s though, acid water from the nearby Tama River hot springs area was poured into Tazawa to dilute it, killing all but one species of very resilient carp.   So it's not a fishing destination, but in the summer people swim there - it is much less acidic than the onsen nearby.    The camp sites looked appealing...and it would make an accessible weekend from Tokyo - the  Shinkansen line runs to Tazawa ko then a short bus ride to the lake -  but not on a long weekend....

                                          Lake Tazawa

Boats on Lake Tazawa

                                            Tazawa ko with Akita Komagatake in the background

         Tazawa ko with Akita Komagatake in the background

Tazawa ko

         A really lame picture of a really lame statue... for some reason Japan has a disproportionate number of statues of naked women...(rarely of naked men). .Towada ko on the border of Akita and Aomori has a "lake maiden" that is very similar - though not gold.  It is apparently the highlight of the lake....never mind the nature... go figure..  It relates to the folk story I mentioned at the top.