Sep
21
2012

Yugama Crater Lake of Mt. Shirane

As some of you might know I had a great time during my summer vacation. I visited various places, but today I want to share one of my highlights with you: The Yugama Crater Lake of Mt. Shirane

Favorite Photo #4: Crater Lake Yugama

*Click to enlarge

What you see in the photo is one of the three crater lakes of the volcano Mt. Shirane (白根山).
It is a 2160m active volcano in Kusatsu, Gunma Prefecture. It’s called Kusatsu Shirane (草津白根山) to avoid confusion with Mt. Nikko Shirane (日光白根山） on the other side of Gunma Prefecture.

“Yugama” (湯釜, lit.: hot water pot) is the largest of Mt. Shirane’s crater lakes and looks stunning with its turquoise color and with rafts of yellow sulfur floating on its surface. The caldera lake measures 300m in diameter and 30m in depth and the water temperature is approximately 18°C.
Because of its very high acid level of about PH1.0, plants cannot grow around this lake.

You can easily access “Yugama” by bus from Kusatsu’s bus terminal and then hike up for about 20 minutes. It’s an easy hike!

Important visitor’s note:
Hiking is only possible from mid April to early November!

Yugama is a stunning site – a lot more breathtaking than any photo can express!
The nearby Kusatsu Onsen Resort is also totally worth a visit. You can easily do both as a day trip if you are already in Gunma Prefecture.
Stay tuned for my blog post about Kusatsu where I hopefully can show you the real beauty of Kusatsu! smilie

Thanks for reading. smilie

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7 Comments

Japan Australia 78 2012/9/21 @ 10:14

It does look stunning with that turquoise color and almost out of the world feeling to the place. I like the idea of the nearby onsen. As you can probably tell, I’m an onsen fan.

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- zoomingjapan 766 2013/4/22 @ 18:49
  
  All the crater lakes in Japan that I’ve seen so far were really stunning!
  
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PierreB. 5 2012/9/24 @ 22:59

Das muss beeindruckend sein dort davor zu stehen, sieht jedenfalls klasse aus. …aber, *schmunzelt*, kommt mir irgendwie bekannt vor, zumindest mal spontan bei ‘streetview’ geschaut…
Mt.Shirane, Agatsuma District, Gunma Prefecture, Japan

Macht aber nichts, soll doch kein Vorwurf oder dergleichen sein, wunderte mich nur das ich beim erst bestem ‘blauen Bubble’ den Treffer landete. xD

But by the way, thanks for writing.

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- zoomingjapan 766 2012/9/28 @ 23:46
  
  Was würdest du mir denn vorwerfen wollen? *g*
  Es gibt nur eine Stelle von wo aus man Fotos von dem Kratersee machen kann.
  Natürlich sehen sich da die Fotos alle recht ähnlich! ^^
  
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  - PierreB. 5 2012/10/1 @ 22:01
    
    Nichts, wo denkst du denn hin …ich war wirklich nur wahnsinnig erstaunt, als ich mal schaute, wo das denn ist und mich mal auf googlemaps ‘umgeschaut’ und *huch*, da war dann gleich das Bild von dir zu sehen. Also absout kein Vorwurf!
    
    Da kommt man dann anscheinend nur von einer Seite da hin, jetzt verstehe ich das auch xD
    
    Aber deines sieht qualitativ natürlich wesentlich besser aus
    
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Alyse 17 2012/9/29 @ 0:45

Ahh, I wanna go to a place like this!! It just looks like such a chill place. I also wonder if that onsen nearby has any special mineral pools from the volcano Ah, this is has to be the coolest looking spot in Japan that I’ve seen ever

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- zoomingjapan 766 2013/4/22 @ 18:48
  
  There’s a nearby onsen resort in Kusatsu, so I’m sure you’ll find some healthy hot springs where you can soak! ^^
  
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