Lake Suwa (it’s a Touhou Reference)

Documenting my solo day trip from Tokyo to Lake Suwa (it’s a Touhou reference).

Proof of arrival. I got there at 11:40-ish, could’ve gotten there an hour earlier but ran into some transit hiccups (long story). There’s another station (Chino) for making the pilgrimage, which would take you to the main Suwa shrine (it’s a network) but that one’s not within walking distance. Plus the Lower Shrine I was headed to is the one that enshrines Yasakatome (Kanako reference).

First thing I wanted to do was check out the lake. 15-minutes of walking, one way.

That took me through some really quiet and old-fashioned streets.

I did not expect cherry blossoms to still be in full bloom.

For lunch, I found this onigiri place near the station which has beautiful interior decor according to Google maps images.

Didn’t have time to eat so into my travel bag they go.

There’s only a few people at the shrine despite it being such a nice day.

I did a prayer and bought an ema for 1000 yen, also took an omikuji for 100 more yen.

There didn’t seem to be a place within shrine grounds where I can sit down and do the ema writing / drawing without looking like I’m desecrating the place (rather, I didn’t know which objects are holy / unholy / okay to be sat on / used as an easel) so I just did it at a secluded area standing up. It reads Touhou Fan Game Jamの作品が多くの人に楽しまれますように。I think the meaning came across pretty well. I mean, I used ChatGPT-

Anyway, the ema went into my travel bag instead of being hung here. I wanted to hang it up at another shrine, where 2hu ema make up a majority (if not all) of the ema rack(?)

The Touhou ema here made up a small but noticeable portion of all the ema and boy were there a lot of ema.

A smaller shrine’s grounds next to the big shrine.

Took the 1:20 train to Okaya. There was a place to sit down in a public place when I walked onto the station platform after getting off so it’s lunch time.

I was adventurous so I bought the drink from a vending machine (a first!)

The environs of this station has much more infrastructure. This one’s for any bridge enthusiasts out there.

This is Moriya Shrine. It doesn’t have a network, and is next to a narrow street unlike the Kanako shrine that has a whole commercial street leading up to it. Mm, I guess that’s what you get for losing a war.

I had thought there wouldn’t be any ema to buy here (cause that’s what the Google review said) which made sense since it wasn’t big enough to warrant a whole, like, customer service counter on premise. Plus, I was the only one roaming around at the time. It turns out, there were ema being sold. They were just in a metal box with a sign to pay 300 yen at the donation box.

It was mid afternoon so I had some time to kill. I found a random table by the side of the road and sat down to gaze at the :koakuma: reacts starting to come in on my gamedev server post.

I wanted to walk down to the big lake again (the station and shrine were actually downstream from the lake) and saw this, so I just had to. The steps were treacherous.

The small shrine is located on a ridge, and judging by the fox motifs, I’m guessing it’s an Inari shrine. (Confirmed that with Google Maps afterwards).

Since I was already high up there, what if there’s a place nearby where I can get a high-vantage-point shot of Lake Suwa? And sure enough..

Observed a scenery of a sakura-covered footpath with torii in the bg. Picture-worthy, probably.

Took the 4:06 train back to Tokyo, so my adventure lasted a total of 4.5 hours.

@ me here.