Part 5 of
the series: Satoyama
Concept in Fukui
During our tour
of the Mikata-Goko
Lakes region, we stayed at Hotel Suigekka. Not only does the hotel offer a comfortable traditional
onsen (hot spring) experience and
beautiful views of Lake Suigetsu, but one can also book a breakfast cruise. A traditional Japanese breakfast is presented
in lacquer boxes (重箱 / jūbako) with side dishes of rice and miso soup.
Lake
Suigetsu is sheltered by wooded hills and its shores are relatively little
developed for a Japanese lake. The town
of Wakasa, to which this area belongs, is famous for its plums (the Fukui Plum
/ 福井梅 / Fukui-ume) and shiso (シソ), and
many orchards and gardens growing these are bordering the lake. We were delightfully surprised by an osprey taking
flight from a wooded area as our boat passed by. Unfortunately, it all happened too quickly
for any of us to get out our cameras.
As our boat passed
by a research platform, Junko Kitagawa of the Fukui Prefectural Satoyama-Satoumi Research Institute, spoke to us about her research about past environments
using sediment taken from the lake bottom.
There are different types of sediments in the winter (dark sediment) and
in the summer (light sediment). In that
way, one can examine the sediments in a similar way to tree rings. For this process to work, one needs a
sheltered location and a lake that is sinking at exactly the same rate. That makes this site very unique
globally. The data being collected is
being used as a reference for dating events in the past such as major volcanic
eruptions and shifts in climate.
Learn more
about Kitagawa’s work in the extract of her paper:
“Detecting
the exact timing of paddy field landscape formation using varved sediments”
To learn more about the research of Fukui Prefectural Satoyama-Satoumi Research Institute, check out their blog (JP only).
Hotel
Suigekka / 水月花
若狭町観光ホテル 三方五湖 水月湖畔 水月花 〒919-1461
51-13
Umiyama, Wakasa
Mikatakaminaka
District, Fukui Prefecture
Tel. 0770-47-1234
