Lake Suwa: Climate change unravels 600 years of history

Fascinating read, really enjoyable. In 2004 a gang of us had a great day playing football on the frozen lake, followed by some wakasagi fishing. Great memories.

Great story. The story was that the electronics manufacturer Seiko, who are massive in that area, originally set up in Suwa because the clean environment was good for precision manufacturing. It's sad to hear that the lake is well on the way to becoming a dead zone.

A 2.4C rise in average temperature is absolutely huge. If this is an example of what we can expect to happen elsewhere with another degree of warming, this is very frightening indeed.

Just about the omitwatari appearing last year, but I live in Nagano and it was noticably colder than recent years from October onwards. We have a woodstove, so it is easy to track how much heating we are using from the wood left in the shed. Until it got warm in February, I thought we were going to run out.

Beautifully written and photographed. Learned quite a bit. Ditch the leaf blowers, though. A few leaves left over never hurt anyone.

Impressive 6 centuries of temperature records changes

Well that was a drawn out, overly dramatic, tedious read.

I've also been there, unfortunately. I found the whole area dilapidated and made typically ugly by rusting roadside barriers. Didn't enjoy it at all and won't go back. Just like most young people from the area when they come of age.

Beautiful article, thanks JT. Please make more articles that feature Japan's natural tourist spots and how they fair with climate change. Ever since watch Your Name, Lake Suwa has been a place I've always wanted to visit