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Joe Steinbring

Oshino

A wooden water wheel beside a thatched house over a pond, with crowds and a small bridge beyond.
The water wheel at Oshino Hakkai, with the crowd that comes to see it, early that afternoon.2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring
Static offline map showing Oshino in Japan with a location pin.

Oshino is a village at the foot of Mt Fuji, known for Oshino Hakkai, eight spring-fed ponds that are part of the Mt Fuji World Heritage Site. My nephew and I stopped here for most of an hour on July 24, 2026, after the morning at Lake Kawaguchi, in Fujikawaguchiko, on the bus tour from Tokyo Station, in Chiyoda City. The water starts out as snowmelt on the mountain and filters through porous lava for about 80 years before it comes up in the ponds. The pond with the water wheel is Waku-ike, where a thatched house holds an old mill, with wooden gears and a millstone, and the guide pointed out the wheel. Along the way, I looked down into a round pond where the water is clear to a turquoise bottom, and later I had a cup of glazed fried bites and a melon soda at a table in the shade. Mt Fuji stayed behind the clouds, and Fujiyoshida was the last stop.

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  • Pink and yellow gladioli beside a green field, with village houses on a wooded hillside beyond.

    Gladioli beside a field on the walk in from the bus, with the village behind them.

    2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • Wooden gears and a millstone in a red-floored room, with the water wheel seen through a window.

    The mill room beside the water wheel, with the wheel visible through the window.

    2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • A round, moss-edged pond with clear turquoise water, fish, and visitors reflected on the surface.

    A spring-fed pond so clear that its turquoise bottom shows, with fish.

    2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

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