{"id":34322,"date":"2023-12-10T21:29:19","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T13:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=34322"},"modified":"2026-03-11T09:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:55:18","slug":"day-03-kawaguchiko-lake-yamanaka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2023\/12\/10\/day-03-kawaguchiko-lake-yamanaka\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 03 @ Kawaguchiko \u2013 Lake Yamanaka"},"content":{"rendered":"

After descending the Panorama-Dai lookout, we hopped onto the loop bus that brought us to what looks like a main stretch of Lake Yamanaka<\/strong> with numerous restaurants and activities centered around and at the lake. The lake is apparently the shallowest of the five lakes in the region surrounding Mt. Fuji.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I didn’t really know what we could expect to do at the lake, and would have been content to just enjoy the scenery with the mountain looming over the water body. As things turned out, one thing made a singular huge difference and this afternoon became the most fun the kids have had on this trip so far: the several dozen wild swans, many ducks, and hordes of carp that inhabit the lake.<\/p>\n

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With fish food, the son has gained a new following. Think Nara Park, but the hordes are now hungry carp. \ud83d\ude02<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We are hungry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Making a new friend.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Swan Lake, literally!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We rented a pedal boat for four, and with leg power sailed to the middle of the lake and had a grand time feeding the swans. The calmness of the waters also made it possible to do a number of low-angle and very close-up shots of the beautiful swans. Still, while the lake’s natural inhabitants have been conditioned to follow the pedal boats and approach humans, they are still wild animals and can attack if they feel threatened, so it was all looking and admiring but no touching.<\/p>\n

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Boats to fit different groups can be rented from several providers at the lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The swans will follow the pedal boats around expecting food. So, buy a few packs before you pedal away from the pier!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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“If you drop your phone into the lake, it will cost you two bags of feed for us to retrieve it.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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“Focus on me hooman, not what’s behind me.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The swans and ducks will gather at the shore too for visitors to feed them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was a lovely couple of hours we spent in the area that was relatively sparse of tourist hordes. Highly recommended for a visit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After descending the Panorama-Dai lookout, we hopped onto the loop bus that brought us to what looks like a main stretch of Lake Yamanaka with numerous restaurants and activities centered around and at the lake. The lake is apparently the<\/p>\n

Read More Day 03 @ Kawaguchiko \u2013 Lake Yamanaka<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[677],"class_list":["post-34322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-chubu-kanto-japan-2023","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/blog-2023-japan-day-03-20231210_1407180.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34322"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38244,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34322\/revisions\/38244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}