Mostly Japanese Mountains: Beautiful Fall Leaves hiking around Mt. Shizugatake (賤ヶ岳), Lake Biwa (琵琶湖), and Lake Yogo (余呉湖) in Shiga

Lake Yogo and Mt. Shizugatake

. . . about Lake Yogo

This is a small lake just north of , Japan's largest lake. The circumference of the lake is just about 6 km (less than 4 mi.), and has a well-maintained path. Three sides of the lake are surrounded by low mountains. One of them, Mt. Shizugatake, has great views of the two lakes and of to the east. Lake Yogo is very tranquil. There are few businesses, but many free parking lots for visitors and a visitor center with a restaurant and souvenir shop.

Area: Lake Biwa

As I said, Lake Biwa is the largest lake in Japan and is very pretty. It got its name because its shape resembles that of a kind of traditional lute called biwa.

Lake Biwa is in but only 10 minutes away from . It has something like 235 km (almost 150 mi.) of coastline and there is a ton of all the fun things you can imagine. Fishing, boating, swimming, resorts, etc.

Location:

Map: ***If you want a link to the latest Yama to Kogen map, comment and I'll get you a link. This link is to a printable topo map.

Starting and stopping point: Lake Yogo Visitor's Center 余呉湖観光館駐車場

Peaks bagged: Iwasaki ~ Ooiwa ~ Shizugatake ~ Uchiki ~ Kohouji ~ Oohira ~ Shinmei ~ Doki

(First-time) peaks # 1,071~1,078

Getting there/getting around:

I drove. One of the great things about this area being so quiet is that it is definitely ok to sleep in the car at one of the free parking lots.

There is a train station quite close to the lake. You can get there in 60~90 minutes from Kyoto, or . I looked at the train schedule when I was there. It had about one train per hour.

Helpful Info

Weather Information:

Mt. Shizugatake Weather in Japanese

Time and distance

YAMAP's Estimate Time: 8:05 Distance: 16.5 km

The Caveman did it in Total Time: 5:47 Break time: :38 Distance: 17.5 km

Elevation: Lowest: 88 m Highest: 458 m Total Ascent: 1,006 m Total Descent: 1,006 m

Technical considerations/difficulty:

Nothing difficult. These are low hills. You don't get anywhere near the treeline. There is a fair amount of up and down, resulting in the elevation change of over 1,000 meters up and down, but it didn't feel like it. I walked more than 10 miles, but I think that passing so many peaks made the hike seem to fly by and I didn't feel taxed at all.

Facilities:

There is a ropeway up to Shizugatake that runs from 9:00~5:00 in season. Shizugatake Lift. See the link for details. There is a restroom at the top of Shizugatake. No waterholes on the trail.

Thoughts/observations/recommendations:

I thoroughly enjoyed this hike and am happy with how the plan came together. I did this hike in the morning and then drove over to Mt. Ibuki in the afternoon.

I arrived in the around 5 or 5:30 pm and looked at Lake Biwa in the dark while hunting for some place to eat. It turned out that there was a restaurant right next to the Lake Yogo Visitor's Center. Lake Yogo Minshuku Ryokan. I had the place to myself. They close at 7 pm.

I slept in the visitor's parking lot and started before sunrise so I caught the sunrise on the way and, when I reached Mt. Shizugatake, I had the peak all to myself. If I were to do it again, I would go even earlier and try to catch the sunrise from Shizugatake. That was a cool peak.

I walked all the way around the lake on the surrounding mountains. If you don't want to work that hard, I would suggest you focus your energy on Mt. Shizugatake. It was the high point of the hike.

I did extend my hike a bit and descended to walk along the shore of Lake Biwa for a while. I don't know that necessarily added any value to my hike. I was actually a bit disappointed because there is a lot of traffic and the noise of the cars disturbed my tranquil state of mind. That said, Lake Biwa was pretty to look at.

This video represents my whole day's activities:

(Along with all the regular stuff such as maps, headlamps, boots, feet, and brains, . . .) don't forget:

. I had a map for Ibuki and assumed it would cover this area, too. I was wrong. It would be a little hard to get lost because there is a lake to orient on but the trails are not always marked and getting lost in inclement weather is always a possibility.

Let's look at some pictures.