A Dog-Friendly Pleasure Boat Trip On Noziri-ko Lake, Nagano Prefecture

Noziriko is one of the well-known lakes as a tourist spot in Japan. It is located in northern Nagano prefecture. The perimeter of it is 10 miles (16 km) and the deepest point is 126.3 ft (38.5 m). The reason why this lake is well-known is the fact that fossils of one kind of ancient elephant called "Naumann's Elephant" were found here for the first time in Japan. Yes, now there is no wild elephant in Japan, but they are living in Japan until about 15,000 years ago.

Therefore around the lake, people find monuments of the elephant here and there as you can see in the upper left hand side photo. It is a nice place for leisure time and not only elephants lover but also small pet animals lover would enjoy visiting this lake. 

There is a pleasure boat activity on the lake, and actually people can take their pets to enjoy a short excursion tour with it on the lake. The fee is 1100 yen (about 10 $) for a person and 300 yen (2.7 $) for a pet. The boat tour takes about 40 minutes and pets can stay both inside of the boat and top of the boat during the trip.

The boat make a round of the lake and stop by an island called Biwa-jima (Biwa-Island) shown on the lower left hand side photo. The boat passengers and their pets can also enjoy walking on the small island covered by lots of green and visiting a shrine there. It would be nice for travelers  to pray for a good luck on their trip. 

Recently pet friendly places are increasing all over Japan, and this is one of the wonderful places to enjoy a trip with pets!