Urabandai Mountain Walks


A trail walk at Grandeco under the azure sky



A view of autumn foliage seen from a gondla

Urabandai Lakeside Walks


Goshikinuma hiking guide map

(L) Lake Yanagi and lakeside trail (R) Ao Pond

Akanuma Pond
Akanuma ("Red Pond") is a small pond actually greener than it is red, but with a unique reddish
outline from the high iron content of it water seeping into the roots of the reeds in it and tinting
them red.

Tatsu-numa ("Dragon Lake") is distinguished by having numerous little cascades of water flowing
into it, and having water that is particularly changeable in color, tending towards green in winter,
and bright blue in spring.

Lake Benten

(L) Lake Benten
Benten-numa (Benten is the Japanese goddess of the arts and wisdom): the second largest of
the five lakes, and perhaps named after a goddess for the almost mysterious depth and mix of
rich blues and greens visible in the water.

(R) Midori Pond
Midoro-numa ("Deep Mud Lake") is a butterfly-shaped pond surrounded by reeds and bulrushes,
and its water is, much like Akanuma, emerald green but with reddish tinges in its plant life.

Lake Bishamon

(L) Vines with purple-colored fruits of akebi were found in the forest close to a lake.
(R) Lake Bishamon: Mt Bandai is far in the back.


Goshikinuma, the "Five Colored Marshes," is a group of very picturesque lakes and ponds on a highland plain
in Bandai-Asahi National Park, , about 3 km north of the foot of Mt. Bandai. They have existed only since 1887,
when Mt. Bandai erupted, generating a cascade of displaced earth and rubble that blocked in various places
what was a river, creating ponds and lakes. From this the mineraloid, allophane
(consisting mainly of aluminum and silicon), leached into the newly formed lakes, and the sludge at the bottom
of the most of the lakes contains this and other chemicals that give the water a distinctive deep-blue tint
that changes subtly with the sunshine. Furthermore, a combination of iron oxide and various kinds of plants
and algae in the lakes produced a reddish tinge often evident in some of the lakes. Each lake or pond,
therefore, has a different, unusually vivid, color, which can change day-to-day or throughout the year.

The 3,300 m-long hiking trail takes nearly two hours to walk, while photographing the landscape. It takes
hikers around mysterical five lakes and ponds of Goshikinuma, which means 'five colored lakes and ponds.'
There is a slight elevation change, caution is needed due to scattered rocks and mud caused by rain.


(L) A blue clear sky after long rainy days: The picture was taken from a shinkansen bullet train.
(R) Inawashiro JR Station

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Urabandai Lakeside Resort

Urabandai Lake Resort is a huge hotel, which has 324 guest rooms. It was built in 1990 at cost of 32 billion yen
( 364 million Us dollars ),at the time of the peak of the bubble economy. In December 2016, all guest rooms became
smoke-free. A smoking room is provided on the first floor; however, the entrance door is sometimes not closed.
Smoking is allowed in the bar on the third floor. During a business hour,door is kept open. They appear to ignore to
prevent a harmful side smoke.It is located in the starting point to walk to Lake Hibara and Goshikinuma,
"Five Colored Marshes." A free shuttle bus is operated from JR Inawashiro station three times a day.


(L) Exterior (R) Entrance hall with a decoration for a Halloween

(L) A long corridor (M) A powder room (R) A twin-bedroom

(L) An indoor public bath (R) An open-air hot-spring bath

(L) Drawing fashion collection (R) A library and Mt. Bandai

(L) A hotel guide for yukata, no-smoking in a guest room and the place we can use Wi-Fi.
(R) A smoking room

(L) A playroom and bar, in which smoking is allowed. (R) A course Japanese cushion

A course Japanese cushion

Morning buffet

The new section built in 2015 (L) An entrance lobby (R) An elevator hall

(L) Reception desk (M) A replica of Qin's bronze chariot (R) hotel corridor

　A giant resort hotel at Urabandai, Fukushima

Hotels for young people and families seeking ski and hot-spring:

It fell short of expectations when we saw the guest room, because the actual impression is so much different
from the photos displayed on the hotel's home page. We reserved one of the best guest rooms on the top floor.
However, the room is so old, just like a past local-government-made accommodation. There are two public
bath facilities. One of them is new. The pillars and ceiling of the bathroom are made of giant cypress trees.
It is an extremely precious existence in this era. A bathing people can enjoy watching white Hakuba mountain
ranges in a 41℃-Hot-spring water. All hotel staff are friendly and helpful. The hotel turned its policy, and
all guest rooms became smoke-free from April 2018.

Smoke-free Hotels in Japan
A summary of non-smoking-room rate studied in local hotels of Japan

H
Smoking Restriction at Hotels in the World: Actual Survey
The ratio of a smoking guest room to the total hotel rooms was calculated,
based on-the-spot investigation.


裏磐梯 (五色沼および裏磐梯レイクリゾート）
　 執筆　医学博士　宮本順伯
★This Web site is link-free.
This information was provided by the Smokefree Hotel and Travel.
The article was written in Octobr 2017.
All photography was taken by Dr. Junhaku Miyamoto inOctober 2017.
Copyright (C) 2017 Junhaku Miyamoto, PhD. All right is reserved.

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