All the barren trees around the lake turn beautiful when they are covered in snow. In the background are mountains covered in snow. Now in the middle of that scene place a mid-sized city. You have ...

For nearly 600 years, priests at Yatsurugi Shrine, such as Kiyoshi Miyasaka (pictured), have observed ice cover on Lake Suwa in Nagano Prefecture, diligently recording it by hand, representing one ...

A glistening white road upon a frozen lake surface in central Nagano Prefecture is where the gods walk. Across Lake Suwa, a natural phenomenon referred to as “The Gods’ Crossing” appears in winter ...

SUWA, Nagano -- A natural phenomenon called "Omiwatari," in which ice forming on the surface of Lake Suwa in Nagano ...

The 76th Suwa Lake Fireworks Festival wows audiences at Lake Suwa in the city of Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, on Aug. 15, 2024. Starting at dusk, large-scale spherical "shakudama" fireworks and nearly ...

Suwa Taisha is an ancient Shintō complex stretching along the shoreline of beautiful Lake Suwa in Japan’s mountainous Nagano Prefecture. This set of shrines rivals Japan’s better-known ...

The Suwa fisheries union estimated that around 80% of smelt in the lake washed up that day. A Nagano prefectural fisheries lab published a similar estimate. After the die-off, the prefecture ...

The map locates Lake Suwa, and the city of Suwa, on its southeastern shore, in Nagano Prefecture, west of Tokyo, Japan. “Carrying on a tradition for 580 years binds our community together ...

For hundreds of years, Shinto priests living on the banks of Lake Suwa, in the Nagano Prefecture of Japan, watched the surface of the lake freeze solid each winter. Partway through the winter ...

A ceremony is seen on Lake Suwa in the town of Shimosuwa, Nagano Prefecture, on Feb. 5, 2018, after the appearance of the "Omiwatari" natural phenomenon of an ice ridge on the lake's surface was ...