Where to go this weekend? Quiet leisure time at Lake Shirakaba.

In the melting summer of 2022, I'm not in the mood for floating seas or stoic mountains. What will surely suit such a mood is a lake. Lake Shirakaba, located in Chino, Nagano, where the "Lake Resort" is conceived, is not a place where you go to do something with a purpose. It is simply a place to drift. The lake taught me how to spend leisure time, not leisure time, by chewing time and savoring space.

Photo_Kengo Inuzuka

Edit_Yuka Koga

Try to move your body.

If you want to move your body in an easy-to-understand way, you can take a Canadian canoe ride at Shirakaba Lake. At Shirakaba Lake, the Yatsugatake Adventure Tours will guide you through the canoeing experience. If there is space, you can join on the day of the canoeing experience.

Instead of touching the lake, you can also view it from higher up. Yatsugatake Adventure Tours offers e-bike rentals and cycling tours. Riding through the highlands at speeds of up to 30 kilometers per hour is an exhilarating experience.

Godai Fukui is a former Japan national ski cross champion and 2019 SUP All Japan Championship 6km race winner. He grew up on Lake Shirakaba and left Shonan in 2019 to make a U-turn to his hometown to work as an e-bike tour and canoe instructor.