Bandai's Blasted Highland: The Five Coloured Ponds & Lake Inawashiro — 2 Days

The signature walk of Urabandai links a string of ponds left by the 1888 eruption along a flat, well-maintained 3.6-kilometre trail through birch and reed. The wonder is the colour: dissolved minerals and the angle of the light turn the ponds turquoise, emerald, jade and a milky cobalt, sometimes several shades in a single pool, with the great breached crater of Mount Bandai rising behind. The largest, Bishamon-numa at the eastern trailhead, has rowing boats and a clear view to the mountain; the smaller ponds deeper in are quieter and stranger. It is gentle enough for any reasonably fit walker and takes about 80 minutes one way; you can turn back or arrange a bus from the far end.

Trail open and free; best snow-free roughly late April to November (icy/closed in winter without snowshoes). The Bishamon-numa trailhead is by the Goshikinuma-iriguchi bus stop, about 25 minutes by bus from JR Inawashiro Station. Wear proper shoes; bring water. Allow about 100 minutes for an out-and-back to the prettier ponds.

The cluster of buildings at the Goshikinuma trailhead has a handful of cafes and restaurants geared to walkers, of which Il Regalo, an Italian-leaning spot using local highland vegetables and dairy, is a reliable sit-down choice; nearby visitor-centre cafes and the Bishamon-numa rest house do lighter plates and Aizu-area soba. Urabandai is good dairy and vegetable country — the local soft-serve and cheese are worth a try — and after the morning's walk a proper warm lunch is welcome before the afternoon. Refill water here, as options thin out around the lakes.

Most trailhead eateries open roughly 10:00-16:00 (seasonal; some closed in deep winter); lunch runs around ¥1,000-2,000 (approx., 2026). At the Goshikinuma-iriguchi cluster by the bus stop. No reservation usually needed. Allow about an hour.

The largest of the lakes born from the 1888 eruption, Hibara was formed when the landslide dammed the Hibara River and slowly drowned the old village of the same name — in very low water the torii of its submerged shrine still shows. Today it is a long, island-dotted lake ringed by forest, with sightseeing boats in the green season, kayaking and lakeside cafes, and ice fishing for pond smelt under huts in winter. A short cruise or a stop at one of the viewpoints on the western shore road gives the scale of what the eruption rearranged, and the reflection of Mount Bandai on a still afternoon is the classic Urabandai image.

Lake and shore roads free; sightseeing boats run roughly late April to November, around ¥1,000-1,500 (approx., 2026). The southern shore is about 5 minutes by car from the Goshikinuma area. Allow about 75 minutes for a viewpoint stop or short cruise. Roads close or ice over in deep winter.

Set on the southern flank of Mount Bandai between the highland and Lake Inawashiro, this resort hotel is the area's most comfortable base, designed in an 'Aizu modern' style that threads the region's lacquer, textiles and folk crafts through contemporary rooms and lounges. The draw after a day on the trails is the hot spring, a large bath looking out to the mountain, and a dinner that leans on Aizu beef, highland vegetables and local sake. It sits beside a ski mountain, so winter is busy with skiers; in green season it is the relaxed end of an outdoor day, with the lake a short drive below for the morning. A genuine resort rather than a country inn.

Rooms with dinner and breakfast run roughly ¥20,000-40,000+ per person (approx., 2026); reserve well ahead in ski season. About 15-20 minutes by car from JR Inawashiro Station; shuttle by arrangement. Check in mid-afternoon. Allow the evening.

On a rise above the north shore of Lake Inawashiro stands Tenkyokaku, a white Renaissance-style villa built in 1908 as a retreat for Prince Arisugawa and later used by the imperial family, who named it for the lake's mirror-like surface ('heavenly mirror'). A National Important Cultural Property, it is open to visitors: you walk the parquet ballroom, the dining and reception rooms with their period furniture and imported fittings, and the verandas looking down to the lake. It is a rare, intact glimpse of late-Meiji aristocratic taste set in a provincial landscape, and there is a tea salon where you can sit in costume or simply over coffee with the lake view. A graceful, easy first stop for the day.

Open daily roughly 08:30-17:00 (to 16:30 in winter, last entry 30 min before); around ¥370 adult (approx., 2026). On the north shore, about 15 minutes by car from JR Inawashiro Station; near the Noguchi memorial. Allow about an hour.

Hideyo Noguchi, the bacteriologist whose face is on Japan's ¥1,000 note, was born in 1876 in a farmhouse on the north shore of Lake Inawashiro, and that thatched cottage — including the hearth where he badly burned his hand as a baby, the injury that turned him toward medicine — is preserved on the site beside a modern museum. The displays follow his rise from poverty to research on syphilis and yellow fever in New York and Africa, where he died of the disease he was studying in 1928. It is a thoughtful, well-made museum that frames both his achievements and the complexities of his work, and a very Japanese kind of pilgrimage to the self-made man behind the banknote.

Open daily roughly 09:00-17:30 (to 16:30 in winter, last entry 30 min before); around ¥800 adult (approx., 2026). On the north shore near Tenkyokaku, about 15 minutes by car from JR Inawashiro Station. Allow about an hour.

Close the trip on the open eastern shore of Lake Inawashiro at Shidahama, the easiest place to stand at the water's edge with Mount Bandai across the lake — the view that earned it the 'heavenly mirror' name and, on a calm day, throws a near-perfect reflection of the mountain. In summer it is a low-key swimming and swan-boat beach; in winter, thousands of whooper swans gather on the lake, and the shore is one of the best places to see them. There are lakeside restaurants and cafes here for a final lunch — local soba, lake fish, an Aizu set — before the short drive back to Inawashiro Station and the train. A quiet, wide-horizon finish.

Shore free and open; lakeside restaurants run roughly 10:00-16:00, lunch around ¥1,000-2,000 (approx., 2026). On the eastern shore, about 10 minutes by car from JR Inawashiro Station. Swans gather roughly November to March. Allow about an hour with lunch.