When the snow melts, something breathtaking happens at this lake in northern Japan.

Despite offering some of Japan’s most beautiful scenery, Shirakawa-ko isn’t all that famous. “Wait a second,” you might be saying, “isn’t that village in Gifu Prefecture with the thatched roofs one of the country’s most popular tourism spots?” But that’s Shirakawa-go, or “Shirakawa Village.” The place we’re talking about today is Shirakawa-ko, “Lake Shirakawa” in the town of Iide, Yamagata Prefecture.

The surrounding mountains are covered in snow throughout the winter, and when that snow finally melts in the spring, it flows into the lake, dramatically raising the water level from late March to late May. This partially floods an expansive grove of white willow trees, creating a submerged forest of mysteriously beautiful scenery in which the trees appear mirrored in the surface of the water.

The trees are almost entirely white until mid-April, but then their new spring leaves come in, creating an even more densely vegetated duplicated landscape.

As amazing as the submerged forest looks by day, though, it’s even more ethereally breathtaking at night.

With the willows illuminated as part of a special light-up event, they appear to be floating in space, since the rural location of the lake (which is about 40 minutes by car from Akayu Station on the Yamagata Shinkansen line) means there are hardly any other sources of light after sundown, except for the moon.

This year, the submerged forest will be illuminated from 6 to 9 p.m. on the nights of April 19 and 20, and from April 26 to May 11 (provided the weather isn’t rainy). There is an entrance fee of 1,000 yen (US$6.70) per person to the adjacent park, which goes to cover the costs of the illumination and contributes to a local nature conservation fund.

The park also has some rustic after-dark amenities during the event, and the illumination for the trees is provided entirely by battery-operated sources, so there won’t be any noisy gas-powered generators spoiling the tranquil mood.

▼ Lake Shirakawa submerged forest location

As for what else there is to see in Iide, the local tourism office’s promotional video makes it look like exactly the sort of place that sparks daydreams of quitting your office job and moving to the Japanese countryside to start living the slow life.

But even if you spend only one night in Iide to see its submerged forest, odds are it’s a night you’ll never forget.

Related: Lake Shirakawa submerged forest tourism information website
Source, images: PR Times
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