Bokodai Observatory was added to Your Favorites!
Myōkō-Togakushi Renzan NP, Nagano
Claim this place to tell your story your way.
Lake Nojiri in this view began when material from Mt. Kurohime volcano dammed an older valley. Later uplift on the lake’s western side helped shape the lake we see today.
The first Lake Nojiri fossil dig nearly came up empty. In 1962, junior-high students dug near the equipment-storage area just before the excavation ended—and uncovered a Naumann elephant thighbone.
The million-cosmos slope below Bokodai is replanted by hand. Each autumn, growers save its seeds to raise again in spring, maintaining flowers suited to Kurohime’s local climate.
Mt. Kurohime blocks the evening sun on this eastern slope, shortening the flowers’ daily sunlight. The local garden says its cosmos bloom earlier than ordinary varieties.
The slopes around Bokodai opened as a national ski area in 1966. Today, the same mountain setting also welcomes summer visitors to flower gardens and walking routes—a recreation landscape for every season.
At 1,030m, Bokodai looks out over Lake Nojiri and Mt. Madarao—and has a small local ritual to go with the panorama: visitors are invited to ring its “Bell of Happiness.”
