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Haunted Lake -
12-11-2009, 09:08 AM
Having lived in my neighborhood in Japan for some time now, I have found myself often surprised by how many different and unusual places are located near it and in it. Chance seems to have been good to me, I had no real choice about where I was to live and work in Japan, but I find the area where I live and my job both to be very pleasant.
Being an active person, I spend much of my time off cycling and hiking. I've been to most of the mountains surrounding the Kanto region by now, usually going with my girlfriend, but sometimes going by myself. I've ridden and hiked countless miles by now, and I never get tired of it because there is always something new to discover and enjoy. Last week I found another such place, but this one was only a few miles from my home. While on a bike ride through the foothills to the east of my town, I came across a rather large and beautiful lake. Lakes are common enough in the area where I live, but none that I had visited so far were quite as nice as this one. I decided it was worth looking at more closely, so I locked up my bike and began exploring. The first thing I noticed was that the lake was even larger than it first appeared. Parts of the lake were hidden by heavily forested peninsulas. I had first guessed that it would take me no more than an hour to walk all the way around it, in fact, it ended up taking a couple of hours. Tall hills overlooked the far side of the lake, and the hills were covered with giant cedar trees. Large ferns grew heavily beneath the trees on either side of the trail, and numerous springs ran noisily down the slopes to the lake. The going was very muddy in some places, but not too muddy. On the east side of the lake where the trees weren't so large, I found numerous raspberry plants covered with ripe berries. I ate several handfuls, and they were quite delicious. I was surprised that the birds hadn't eaten them, or than no one else had come by to pick them. I then recalled that during my entire walk I had not seen another person walking around the lake. Out on the water there were quite a few fishermen in small boats, and on there were also fishermen at either end of the lake near the parking lots, but no people anywhere else. It was odd, especially for a Saturday. I ended up taking quite a few pictures, shooting a roll of film in my old Canon F1 camera. The pictures came out quite well, and I decided that I would have to come back to the lake again at another time to take some more pictures. When I got to work on Monday, I shared my experience at the lake with my coworkers and students, and many were surprised. All had seen the lake at one time or another, but it was not a popular place. Everyone I talked to said that the lake was haunted. The haunting at the lake seemed to be some kind of local legend, and like such legends everywhere, the details varied depending on who I talked to. The only thing all the stories had in common is that there was a ghost of a woman who lived in the lake. Though everyone agreed the ghost was a woman, no one knew who she was, or how she had died. Most believed the woman had committed suicide at the lake, but no one was sure of how. Some said that she had hung herself from a tree, while others said that she had drowned herself in the deep water. The story of the lake was known well enough that several years ago a television crew came to the lake in the middle of the night in an attempt to film the ghost. As is typical with such Japanese shows, a celebrity host was sent to investigate. What had been expected to be a comical and somewhat spooky tv show episode instead turned into something surprisingly scary and unexplained. Once again, the details are rather murky, but it appears that the tv crew were scared quite badly during the filming of the show, and were unable to stay long enough to film very much. They claimed that they had seen the ghost, and that they had caught it on tape, but unfortunately, no image of the ghost could be seen when the tape was played. This was all quite surprising to me, but did a lot to explain why so few people could be seen at such a beautiful place on such a fine day as it had been on Saturday. But the story of the ghost isn't the only one regarding the lake. Another widely held belief is that if you walk around the lake 7 times, a giant snake will come out of the water and drag you in. As of now, I've walked around the lake 3 times, and considering how wary the locals seem to be about this lake, I'll probably limit myself to 6 walks. Here are a few pics:     
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12-11-2009, 12:09 PM
Well it certainly is beautiful; ghost or no ghost, I'd happily spend hours wandering around it.
Does bring to light again in my mind an interesting discrepancy with ghost stories. Have you noticed that the only fact people all agreed on was that the ghost is of a woman? Interesting as almost all ghosts in Japan seem to be women. Similar things in the west too; adult female ghosts tend to be sad or seeking (excepting witches, of course), adult male ghosts tend to be angry or evil. It would definitely be interesting to know approximately how old this story is. Sounds like it must be fairly old to also have that snake story and for so many people to avoid it. Large-scale reputation like that takes time to sink in so thoroughly. *psychologist hat* Anyway, enjoy it; sounds like you know the one place that's going to be quiet during Golden Week! And thanks for sharing the photos; i love the last one. The bird (a heron?) really adds interest.
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12-11-2009, 01:57 PM
I already had my comment ready: PICS!!! but in the last sentence you took away that chance from me
 Back to the topic: Awesomepictures! Does someone live in the little house? And, damn, that is really a nice lake :O
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12-11-2009, 02:10 PM
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12-11-2009, 03:00 PM
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12-11-2009, 04:43 PM
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12-12-2009, 04:04 AM
The top picture of the lake with the shrine was taken with my 4x5 view camera, which has very high resolution. When scanned, I got an image that was 11000 pixels by 9000 pixels large. A computer monitor is only capable of 1/10th that resolution. The small white dots in the background are boats with fishermen on them. If I zoom in on the original image I can actually count the fishermen and tell what clothes they are wearing.
The shrine to the right is being renovated, it is almost finished now. There are larger ones in the hills surrounding the lake.
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