[4] In winter, the frozen lake surface is turned into a race track, which is used to hold courses in road safety as well as to test drive cars in development.

[5] With the help of English literature scholar Kimie Imura, the Lake Megami Fairy Festival has been held since 2010.

[7] It was conceived as a plan to revitalise the area, and by making fairies the theme it has a high degree of originality and newsworthiness.

As well as this, the event takes place between the summer and winter tourist seasons, with an aim to increase visitor numbers in that period.

[8] Before this time the feudal domain had a kokudaka of a little over fifty koku, but after the completion of Shiozawa-segi this increased rapidly.

The family was responsible for maintaining and managing the irrigation channel, controlling the amount of water supplied.

Construction began in April 1942 to improve the water supply for agriculture in the six villages of Ashida, Yokotori, Mitsuwa, Motomaki, Kitamaki and Shiokawa (present day Tateshina, Saku, Tōmi and Ueda).

Adding to the practical use of an already existing irrigation channel, a new tunnel was dug up and maintenance of the main waterway was promoted.

Work on suspended Lake Megami project resumed, and while construction was delayed due to difficult terrain, it was completed in 1966.

Kawatarō would take the shape of a human child and sit upon the stone, inviting passersby to a game of kagihiki ('key (or hook) pulling').

[3] It takes forty minutes to cover the thirty kilometres from Suwa Interchange on the Chūō Expressway.