Monet’s Pond in Seki, Gifu Prefecture

During Golden Week this year, my girlfriend and I were looking for a new place to visit and hopefully get a short road trip out of it. One place we decided on was Monet’s Pond in Seki City in Gifu Prefecture. From what I had heard, this pond is a small, nameless pond in the middle of nowhere that apparently looks amazing in photos. The photos are as if they were paintings by Monet, and the evidence I have seen on social media did support that claim. However, I was also told that while the pictures come out really beautiful, the pond is somewhat underwhelming to the naked eye. Since we were simply wanting to explore, we kept our expectations low and headed towards the site.

The drive took us up and down some mountains, and after a couple of hours to driving through fields and farms, we suddenly saw a lot of people and several parking lots that were full with cars. We knew we were at the right place then.

After we had parked out car at one of the lots nearby, we started walking towards the pond. The pond, upon arrival, definitely is not big. The entire body of water was surrounded by people shoulder to shoulder, each with a camera or a phone in hand. From the back, you would think “why are people so crazy about just a tiny body of water?”

When we got ourselves a nice spot, however, we took our phones out and the pond did look very artistic on our screens indeed!  What I had forgotten was the fact that the stars of the pond were the big and colourful koi fish swimming around!  Within a minute, I saw quite a few fish travelling between the flowers in the water. It was also then that I realized the water, while not deep, was very green due to the vegetation in the pond, and was actually surprisingly clear!

A sign nearby stated that the pond does not actually have a name. It is just commonly referred to as the Monet’s Pond through the word of mouth.

With that said, you probably would not stand around the pond for hours on end. Good news is that nearby there is also a little shop for you to buy some potted plants to bring home. From flowers to edible vegetables, you can pick a couple up to living your home up.

We spent probably about 30 minutes there, which was not a lot at all for a road trip, but we decided to head back home. To our surprise, we drove by a beautiful river bank and decided to stop there to touch the water. It was quiet. The water was fast but clear. The contrast between this random river bank and the pond was huge, and I would say that we enjoyed this nameless river bank just as much as the named pond before.

This little adventure was a fun and refreshing way to spend one of our Golden Week days!