What you can see on the Towada cam
Towada is a quiet view rather than a dramatic one: open water, the low, even line of the caldera rim, and the light changing on both. Early in the day the low sun lays a bright path across the lake, and on calm days the water mirrors the hills. It also tells you at a glance whether the caldera is clear or shut in by cloud.
Across the caldera lake to the far shore
From the shore at Ginzan the camera looks out over open water. The lake fills the lower part of the frame, and across it a low, even line of hills marks the far side of the caldera, with nothing taller to break the horizon. Above is a wide sky.
In the early morning the sun stands in the picture, laying a bright path across the water and washing out the hills; the far shore is clearer later in the morning, once the sun has climbed out of the frame. On calm days the water mirrors the hills. The caldera is 11 km across and the lake 327 metres deep, the third deepest in Japan.
The eruption of 915
In the year 915 CE, Towada produced the largest volcanic eruption in Japan of the last thousand years. Ash and pumice buried settlements across northern Honshu, pyroclastic flows swept down the valleys, and the fallout layer — known to geologists as To-a — is still used as a time marker in excavations all over the region. Archaeologists have found Heian-period villages sealed under it, with the fields and houses as they were left. The caldera itself was carved by as many as six major eruptions over 40,000 years, ending about 13,000 years ago; the 915 event came from a vent inside the inner caldera, long after the big collapses.
When to watch Towada
Late October brings the autumn colours that the area is famous for. Winter mornings are often still and clear, and the lake does not freeze. Japan is nine hours ahead of UTC.
Around Lake Towada
The Oirase stream runs out of the lake through a gorge of waterfalls and mossy boulders, one of the most walked trails in northern Japan. Towada-Hachimantai National Park continues south to the hot springs of Hachimantai and Tamagawa.
Visiting Lake Towada
Buses run from Aomori and Hachinohe in season. Boats cross between Yasumiya and Nenokuchi, which is also where the Oirase walk begins; the service stops in winter.