Japan It usually fascinates by The unknown and sometimes inexplicable From our western culture (also It happens to them with us). In a country where many words They don’t even have a translation To our language (or They need a phrase), there are countless situations that cause us curiosity. Then there is another set of stories that not only fascinate us, but also. This is one of them, and it started when someone saw something certain.
The road. We are in one of the most famous places in the Japanese country. Located in the center-west of the island of Honshu, in the prefecture of Shiga, northwest of Kyoto, is the monumental Biwa Lakethe most extensive in Japan occupying an area of 670 square kilometers.
Well, the country lives immersed in a mystery that hardly has a logical explanation: someone has built without permission A road on the lake. And it does not carry anywhere.

Lake Biwa from space
The Chivatazo. The story began last year, when the Anonymous report He arrived at the Civil Engineering offices of the city of Takashima, Shiga Prefecture. This document reported a strange sighting in Biwa. Someone had built what seemed like a road on the largest lake in Japan.
An investigation not only verified the track, but also the measures of that mysterious construction. It was a road about 70 meters long and 3 meters wide made of compacted ground that connected two geographical accidents in the Delta del Río Ado. In addition, you could see tire footprints, which clearly indicates some type of use.
Google Maps. The satellite tools like Google Maps gave another track of the antiquity of the road. The satellite shots taken three years ago showed nothing similar to a embankment or road, nor of sediments that indicated some kind of natural formation, and Shiga’s prefecture claimed that “until May last year, the road nobody had confirmed the road.”

Location of the “road” on Google Maps
Visible. From Google Maps Today it is appreciated that the road has suffered considerable wear, probably due to the water rise. In fact, the area close to the site in question is a wetland that even the locals can access. Takashima residents have no idea, since no one ever goes to that area, “there is nothing to do except that hornets or wild boars,” The premises point out.
Television travels. The ball became bigger. If nothing and no one used to approach the surroundings of the construction, who and why the hell did such a work? History has taken such a traction that up there local televisions have been displaced. One of the reporters indicated that when he arrived, he observed that the poor condition had made several areas, which betrayed pieces “that looked like asphalt, iron and concrete.”
The last track. After the initial notice, the Department of Civil Engineering reported on the road to the Police. Three days later, the authorities received a call from an anonymous person who told them that he had been the author, and that he had piled up land to make the way. The Civil Engineering Department ordered the person to return the area to their original state.
A mystery without logic. If you have come here it is possible that you want to know the reason or reason that led whoever was going to build a road on the most extensive lake in Japan. We talk about a work of days and a lot of work for a single person, one who, apparently, makes no sense.
That data Police have not given itand it is only known that there is an accusation for unauthorized development, although the person after the call has not appeared so far. Meanwhile, a year later since the Prefecture instructed those who filled the area to restore it to its original state, but the path that leads to nowhere is still there.
Image | A-GIâuYomiuri TV, GLCF
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*An earlier version of this article was published in July 2024
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