Oirase Gorge

Water is the constant. More than a dozen waterfalls drop into a stream that runs beneath a canopy of beech so complete that autumn turns the whole gorge into a tunnel of amber. The Oirase Stream is the only river that drains Lake Towada, and for fourteen kilometres from the lake it winds among trees, mossed boulders and bridges that disappear into ferns.

Oirase Gorge runs from Nenokuchi on the lakeshore of Towada, in Aomori Prefecture, down through forest that is a lush green in spring and summer and blazes red, yellow and orange from late October into early November, when the moss on the rocks turns the colour up further. The easy walking trail follows the most scenic upper nine kilometres of the stream, crossing and recrossing the water past the falls, and hired bicycles cover it faster. A road runs beside the stream for the whole length — buses along it let you walk one way and ride back, and on the busiest autumn days the road closes to cars — and the whole thing ends at the lake, where a boat crosses to the small resort town of Yasumiya. The bus service stops from mid-November to spring, when the gorge is left to the snow.