Oshino Hakkai is a touristy set of eight ponds, located in Oshino, a small village in the Fuji Five Lake region. It’s placed on site of a former sixth lake that dried out several hundred years ago. The eight ponds are fed by snow melt from the slopes of nearby Mount Fuji that filters down the mountain through porous layers of lava for over 80 years, resulting in very clear spring water that is revered by the locals. Also, Oshino Hakkai is registrated as a cultural heritage of UNESCO.

The ponds have been developed into tourist attractions and there are many facilities for tourists there. Wooden bridges, benches and vantage points make very relaxing atmosphere. Many people get interest in fishes, which are visible in very clean, transparent water of pounds. There are yellow, red and my favourite ones- blue fishes. All of them are very big and fat! Probably, the reason is, that they are fed by tourists without any regulations. Around the pounds you will find many restaurants, souvenir shops and food vendors, which sell vegetables, sweets, pickles, crafts and other local products. During the walk you can feel the nice smell of grilled fishes and vegatables.

Access to the most of ponds is free, but a few of ponds are located in area of a small open air museum, called the Hannoki Bayashi Shiryokan. To get there, you have to pay a small admission fee. It contains a traditional thatched roof farmhouse that can be viewed inside and displays various farming tools, household items, samurai armor and weapons. Also, there is the most beautiful pond around the museum. Probably it’s the samllest one, but the thing is, that it’s perfectly round and you can see amazing shadow of the big tree trunk, reflected on the surface of water. Let’s look at the picture below. This pond seems to be just like a mirror!

Summary

Although there are many tourists here, Oshino Hakkai is really worth seeing! It’s one of the big boasts of the region and very precious natural site. I reccommend you to come here especially in Autumn, where you can see wonderful landscpaes of colorful autumn leaves.

Weronika Golubska

Information

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* This article was written by a trainee from overseas. Please note that there might be spelling and grammar mistakes.