is a caldera lake. It lies near the summit of

Mount Haruna is a dormant stratovolcano in Gunma, eastern Honshū, Japan. Outline Mount Haruna started to form more than 300,000 years ago and the last known eruption was 550 AD. The volcano has a summit caldera containing the symmetrical cinder cone ...

, within the city limits of

Takasaki is a city located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 372,369 in 167,345 households, and a population density of 810 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Takasaki is famous as the hometown of th ...

Gunma Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. A former name for the lake is . In the summer, the lake is a popular destination for campers. The surface freezes in the winter, and it affords

skating Skating involves any sports or recreational activity which consists of traveling on surfaces or on ice using skates, and may refer to: Ice Skating *Ice skating, moving on ice by using ice skates **Figure skating, a sport in which individuals, ...

and

ice fishing Ice fishing is the practice of catching fish with lines and fish hooks or spears through an opening in the ice on a frozen body of water. Ice fishers may fish in the open or in heated enclosures, some with bunks and amenities. Shelters Longer ...

for '' wakasagi''. The lake lies a 90-minute bus ride from

Takasaki Station is a junction railway station located in the city of Takasaki, Gunma, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and the private railway operator Jōshin Dentetsu. It is also a freight depot for the Japan Freight Railway Compa ...

. It can be reached in 40 minutes by car from Shibukawa-Ikaho Interchange, #12 on the

Kan-Etsu Expressway The is a national expressway in Japan. It is owned and managed by East Nippon Expressway Company. Naming is the ''kanji'' acronym of and the old comprising modern-day Niigata Prefecture. Officially, the Kan-Etsu consists of two routes. Both ...

. The road to the lake is one of 10

musical road A musical road is a road, or section of a road, which when driven over causes a tactile vibration and audible rumbling that can be felt through the wheels and body of the vehicle. This rumbling is heard within the car as well as the surroundin ...

s located in Gunma prefecture alone; the song played is "Sweetly Sings the Donkey," chosen because the melody is known as "At a Quiet Lakeside" in Japan. A ''

kayōkyoku is a Japanese pop music genre, which became a base of modern J-pop. ''The Japan Times'' described ''kayōkyoku'' as "standard Japanese pop" or " Shōwa-era pop". ''Kayōkyoku'' represents a blend of Western and Japanese musical scales. Music i ...

'' refers to the lake in its title.

Akira Fuse is a Japanese singer and actor. He debuted in 1965 with the single . Career His greatest hits are and . He currently makes consistent appearances on television, performs occasional seasonal tours, hosts a late night talk show, and is involve ...

recorded the tune, named ''Haruna-ko no shōjo''. The music is by

Rei Nakanishi was a Japanese novelist and songwriter. He won the 122nd Naoki Prize. Career Nakanishi was born Reizō Nakanishi () in Mudanjiang, Manchukuo. He graduated from Kudan High School in Tokyo and received a degree in French literature from Rikkyo ...

and the lyrics by Ken'ichirō Morioka. Parts of the anime and manga

Initial D is a Japanese street racing manga series written and illustrated by Shuichi Shigeno. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Young Magazine'' from 1995 to 2013, with the chapters collected into 48 ''ta ...

take place on or around the lake, under the fictional name Lake Akina, as Mount Haruna - named Akina (秋名) in the series - is the location of the

tōge A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both human and animal migrati ...

where Takumi, the protagonist, wins his first races.

Sources

This article incorporates material from the article 榛名湖 (''Harunako'') in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved on March 21, 2008.

External links

*
観光社会資本の事例
(''Kankō Shakai Shihon no Jirei''), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Haruna Landforms of Gunma Prefecture Tourist attractions in Gunma Prefecture Haruna {{gunma-geo-stub