Fukushimagata Lagoon

Fukushimagata is a 262-hectare freshwater lagoon on the northern edge of Niigata City, one of the last remnants of the wetland system that covered the Echigo Plain before it was drained for rice. Around 220 bird species have been recorded here. In winter it is the wintering ground for the tundra bean goose, and the lagoon holds the northern limit of the prickly waterlily, a giant-leaved aquatic plant that flowers in August.

The seven-storey observation building on the shore, called View Fukushimagata, is the practical way in. The roof deck stands about 29 metres up and gives the only vantage from which the whole lagoon and the Echigo Plain read as one landscape — on clear days with Mount Gozu behind it. Floors one to three are free; the exhibition floors and the roof deck are the paid zone.