I visited in mid-April. It's just one small pond and that’s it. There are some koi fish swimming around, but the colors aren't as vibrant as I expected. I feel like the promotional photos were heavily edited to look much better than the reality.
If you try to come here after seeing videos online you will be very disappointed. The pond is very dull looking and greenish, can hardly see any fish and there was a weird smell when we went there in March. I'm not sure if the look of the pond or smell is gone at other times during the year but I wasn't too impressed.
The pond is small but beautiful, especially at the spot where the carp swim by and you can see the quartz sand at the bottom.
On a sunny day, the fish swimming gracefully with their shadows in the water looks almost magical. It was nice to learn that the pond is fed by natural spring water.
We visited on a Saturday in mid July, and it was crowded and hot.
The free parking opposite the road was full, so we park at a nearer paid parking cost 500 yen, and we were given an uchiwa with the pond’s illustration, which was a nice touch.
No need to make a special trip just for this, but it was a pleasant stop as we were on our way to Gujo Hachiman.
This place was on my must visit list for many years given the beautiful pictures and videos online. Although we didn’t visit on a day with perfect conditions, it was still very beautiful and overall wonderful.
The actual size of the pond is not that large as imagined. But it’s cute and we could still take nice photos. But it is suggested to visit in summer. There is not much to see in winter time. No lotus. A few fishes only. I am sure it will be much better in summer time.
