Lake Imuta

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Researched and written by Hinato

Lake ImutaRamsarfloating peatSatsumasendaidragonflies

Photo: ja:User:Sanjo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) · original

A visit to Lake Imuta is easy to underplan — bring more time, and less certainty about what you'll find, than you'd expect.

Imuta is a crater lake about four kilometres round, sixty hectares in area, and remarkably shallow — the deepest point is 2.7 metres and the average is eighty centimetres. That shallowness is what makes it unusual. The western third has silted up into low moor, dead reeds and willow have accumulated into peat, and sections of that peat have broken free and float. The result is a lake with drifting islands of vegetation on it.

The peat-forming community is a national natural monument and the lake was listed under the Ramsar Convention in 2005. There is a four-kilometre path round the shore, boat and cycle hire, and it is a well-known spot for dragonflies — over sixty species — and for wintering waterfowl. It sits in a bowl of low mountains inland from Satsumasendai and receives very few visitors.

What to know before you go

Access hours

Open access | Shoreline path daylight only

Closed: Open year-round

When to go

Early summer for dragonflies | Winter for waterfowl | Spring for the moor vegetation

Fee

Free | Boat and cycle hire charged separately

Time to allow

1.5–2 hours for the shore circuit

Making the trip

Getting there in detail

Imuta, Keidoin-cho, Satsumasendai. Car recommended. By public transport, take a bus from Kagoshima Station or Kagoshima-Chuo Station to the Iriki Hinomaru stop and then by taxi, or the cross-city shuttle bus from Sendai Station on the Hiwaki and Iriki route, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Free to visit, with a shoreline path of about 4 km.

What to bring

**Look for the floating peat.** Sections of the peat layer detach and drift, which is what the natural monument designation is for. They are on the western side where the moor is. **Four kilometres round.** The shore path is flat and takes about an hour on foot, less by bicycle. Cycles can be hired at the lakeside. **Dragonflies from early summer.** More than sixty species have been recorded, which for a single small lake is exceptional, and midsummer is when the diversity shows. **Winter for waterfowl.** Ducks and other migratory birds use the lake through the cold months, which is the other reason it is Ramsar-listed. **Combine with Iriki.** The samurai district is about twenty-five minutes away, and the two make a full day inland from Satsumasendai.

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