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Enakyo Gorge Cruise

EnakyoOi damsightseeing boatKiso riverEna

Gifu · Ena

35.4763°N, 137.4013°E

Enakyo is the reservoir of the Oi dam, completed in 1924 as the first large concrete dam in Japan, which flooded a stretch of the Kiso river and left the granite formations along its banks standing half in water. They have names — Battleship Rock, Lion Rock, Screen Rock — and the whole thing was named one of Japan's hundred landscapes.

The cruise runs about fourteen kilometres from the jetty near Sazanami Park. A jet boat takes thirty minutes and a covered yakatabune takes an hour, and both go out along the same line of rock faces. In November the maples on the cliffs come down to the water, which is the point of doing it by boat rather than from the road above. Boats leave every half hour, hourly in winter, and Tuesday is the rest day.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

Departures roughly every 30 minutes | Hourly 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM from 1 December to 31 March

Closed: Closed Tuesdays

Entrance Fee

¥1,500 standard fare from the ticket machine

Best Season

Early–mid November for autumn colour | April for cherry blossom

Visit Duration

30 minutes by jet boat | 1 hour by yakatabune

Getting There

Access Information

Oi-cho 2709-104, Ena, from the jetty near Sazanami Park on the Oi dam reservoir. About 10 minutes by car from Ena IC on the Chuo Expressway, with free parking. The route is about 14 km. A jet boat takes about 30 minutes and a covered yakatabune about an hour. Standard fare ¥1,500 from the ticket machine. Departures roughly every 30 minutes; from 1 December to 31 March a winter timetable runs hourly from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Closed Tuesdays.

Insider Guide

Premium

**Two boats, two different trips.** The jet boat covers the route in half an hour; the yakatabune takes an hour under cover. In November the slower one is the better ticket. **Closed Tuesdays.** And on the winter timetable from December to March it runs only hourly, first at ten and last at three. Turning up late in winter means missing it. **The dam is from 1924.** Oi was the first large concrete dam in Japan and the reservoir is why the rock formations stand in water. That is the reason the scenery exists at all. **The rocks have names.** Battleship, Lion, Screen. The commentary points them out and they are much easier to read from water level than from the road above. **Free parking at the jetty.** Ten minutes from the expressway exit, which makes this one of the easiest stops on the Chuo route.

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