Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, is filled with beautiful scenery, but one of the best concentrations is to be found in the town of Biei. With rolling hills and lush farmland, it’s enough to make anyone stop for a moment and drink it all in, especially if you’ve just come from Tokyo or one of the country’s other urban population centers.
Randomly pointing yourself down any road in the town will yield stunning vistas, but once you’re done wandering, you’ll want to check the map and make your way to the Blue Pond, which is breathtaking even by the already-high standards of Biei.
During the five-minute stroll from the nearest parking lot to the body of water, you may wonder what’s so special about the Blue Pond. After all, don’t most lakes look blue?
Yes, they do…but not like this.
The color of the Blue Pond isn’t the vague blue of the reflected afternoon sky, but a much more dramatic hue.
The local spring water is rich in aluminum hydroxide, and when it mixes with the water of the Biei River that flows through the pond it reflects an elevated amount of blue light.
Along with its color, the Blue Pond is granted a mystical atmosphere by the large number of white birch and Japanese larch trees which stand in the middle of the lake.
The unusual sight hints at the pond’s man-made origins. In December of 1988, nearby volcano Mt. Tokachi erupted, prompting experts to beef up the area’s disaster preparedness by building a dam to prevent volcanic mudflow from damaging the community, and water filled up in the Blue Pond’s location as a result.
In other words, the formation of the Blue Pond, one of the area’s most popular destinations, was merely a side-effect of a different public works project. While a typhoon last August briefly stirred up enough sediment to turn the pond brown, it’s back to its dazzling blue now, and ready to serve as a backdrop for visitors’ summer vacation photos.
Related: Blue Pond website (Biei Tourism Association)
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3 Comments
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Luis David Yanez
I cannot recommend this place.
On the Golden Week, after 5 hours driving from Sapporo, we got to this place, and had to wait an extra 30 minutes just to park our car, and the blue color of the so called "Blue pond" was underwhelming. Nothing like they show in pictures. It was just a "little bit" more blue than a regular pond.
Also, the place was packed with people, many with children screaming and running everywhere, which made the whole experience not that enjoyable.
lomae
I agree with Luis. While the area is pretty nice, this place was underwhelming both times I've visited (Spring and Winter).
Barca
We visited it in Late July 2015, and it was pretty spectacular. The water was crystal clear; the atmosphere seemed very mystical due to lots of mist and also rain. If anything, I just wanted to stay there longer to observe nature and the fish coming in from a small river.
It was just us and some Japanese students from a university who were studying the fish (we discovered).
Just one tip: I would avoid it after sundown. As we where leaving, a group of suspicious men/ thugs drove in pretty recklessly. They didn't give us nice looks. Maybe I'm too suspicious of people, but, it is quite a cut-off place after-all.