Fukui · Wakasa BayNo.489★★Open in map →

Mikata Five Lakes

natureOff the trail — and worth it

Five linked lakes behind Wakasa Bay, each holding water of a different salinity, seen together from a summit park on Mount Baijo. A chairlift or a cable car carries you up from the car park, and the ride is included in the admission.

FromTsuruga Station
~60 minJR Obama Line, then taxi
Get off atMihama Station (JR Obama Line)
From there
Mikata Five Lakes

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

There are signboards, a car park and a café up here, so this is a fully worked tourist viewpoint rather than a find. What changes is the air. The colour separation between the lakes shows best on a clear day, and the terraces are at their calmest in the first hour after the lifts start running.

Where it is

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What to look for

The chairlift and the cable carNaokijp / CC BY-SA 4.0

The chairlift and the cable cartwo ways up the same slope from the car park, an open chair or an enclosed car
Goko Terraceround sofas set facing the chain of lakes and the ridgelines behind them
Wakasa Terracea two-storey deck over the inner lakes, with the Tango Peninsula on the far horizon
Mihama Terracethe all-weather deck where every lake and the sea fit in one frame, with an open-air foot bath
Central Terracea deck aimed at the horizon of the Sea of Japan rather than back at the water below

How to actually get there

Tsuruga Station → Mihama Station (JR Obama Line).
Mihama Station → Rainbow Line car park (taxi; the Gokoichi bus also serves the area on weekends and holidays in season).
Car park → summit park by chairlift or cable car, then walk the terraces.

JR Obama Line from Tsuruga, then a taxi: Tsuruga Station →(JR Obama Line)→ Mihama Station, then a taxi up to the Rainbow Line car park. On weekends and public holidays in season the Gokoichi sightseeing bus runs from Tsuruga, Mihama and Mikata stations into the Mikata Five Lakes area, taking about an hour from Tsuruga. There is no walking route into the summit park.
Down by lift, then back to Mihama Station: Take the chairlift or cable car back down to the car park and return to Mihama Station by taxi, or by the Gokoichi bus on the days it runs. Arrange the return taxi before you ride up, since the car park sits well outside the town.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Mikata, Suigetsu, Suga, Kugushi and Hiruga sit in a chain behind the coast of Wakasa Bay. Only Mikata is entirely fresh water. Suigetsu, Suga and Kugushi are brackish, mixing river water with seawater in different proportions, and Hiruga is salt. Because depth and salinity differ from one to the next, the lakes take slightly different colours under the same sky, which is why they are also called the five-coloured lakes. Mount Baijo rises in the middle of the chain, and the road up it and the park on top exist to put you above all of them at once.

How to enjoy it

The park opens at 9:00 and the last ride up leaves half an hour before closing, so a morning arrival lets you move between the terraces instead of settling for one. Winter hours are shorter at both ends. Allow an extra half hour for the foot bath rather than riding up, looking, and turning straight around.

Background & history

The lakes were listed under the Ramsar Convention in November 2005 as wetlands of international importance. Suigetsu holds something rarer still: annually banded sediment on its floor, which has been adopted as a reference standard for radiocarbon dating worldwide. The farmland and lake fisheries around the chain were recognised as a Japan Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage System in February 2019. The road up Mount Baijo and the park at the top were built for one purpose, which was to give the chain a vantage point.

Before you go

Cash: Admission to the summit park was 1,000 yen for adults and 500 yen for primary-school children at the time of checking, and the chairlift or cable car is included in that. If you drive up, parking is charged separately at 800 yen for an ordinary car.
Good to know: The park runs 9:00 to 17:00 from March to November and 9:00 to 16:30 from December to February as confirmed on the date shown, with the last ride up half an hour before closing in both seasons. The summit park cannot be entered on foot.
Another way: By car, the Rainbow Line is entered from the Hyuga gate on the Mihama side or the Kaizan gate on the Wakasa side. The nearest expressway exit is Wakasa-Mikata on the Maizuru-Wakasa Expressway.
After you get off: Mihama Station is down on the coast, well below the mountain. Take a taxi from there to the Rainbow Line car park, then the chairlift or the cable car for the final climb into the park.