A Huge Lake, Seen from a Chair at Biwako Terrace in Summer A spoonful at a time, with the lake stretching into the distance

One summer afternoon, I sat in a chair at Biwako Terrace with a blue cup in one hand. Beyond the deck was a reflecting pool, and beyond that Lake Biwa stretched out before me. From here, I could make out the shape of the shore, something I hadn’t been able to see while driving alongside the lake. Seen from this high up, the lake really is enormous.

I scooped up a spoonful of gelato. The coolness spread through my mouth, and I leaned back into the chair. A breeze slipped through my lightweight shirt. I lowered the hand holding my cup a little, and the lake came back into view. A little taste, then a long look into the distance. At that rate, this break was going to last a while.

My friend asked, “Do you think that’s the shore we drove past earlier?” Together, we followed the shoreline with our eyes, trying to work out where we’d been. My gaze moved from the nearby fields and clusters of buildings to the mountains in the distance. From up here, everything we’d seen along the way seemed to fit around the lake. It was fun to look down and pick out where we’d been driving.

Light flickered over the blue tiles of the reflecting pool. I looked back and forth between the water beside me and the lake in the distance. Both were blue, but the distance gave them a completely different sense of depth. Even when my friend and I fell quiet, there was still plenty to look at. Just as I raised my spoon, I caught myself looking out at the lake again and laughed. “I should eat first.”

As the bottom of my cup started to show, I found myself looking forward to spotting this mountain from the lakeshore. The same road might catch my eye differently before and after a trip up the mountain. Combining a road trip with a ropeway ride lets me see the lake from a different height. That gelato break gave me something else to look forward to on the road ahead.