Frozen LakeWinter. It’s cold and miserable most days, but every so often the freezing winds produce something magical that is awesome enough to take your mind off of your frozen toes. This is one of those things.

The images of Lake Kizaki, located at the foot of the northern Japanese Alps mountain range in Nagano prefecture, first surfaced on the Internet on January 22. Nagano was the site of the 1998 Winter Olympics, so it’s safe to say that it’s plenty cold. But on this particular day in January, it was so cold that the waves and ripples of the lake actually froze in place.

These mysterious patterns were formed when the snow and subsequent rain met the wind and waves of the lakeshore and froze while being washed away.

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The manager of the Lake Kizaki camping grounds, Mr. Arai, took these beautiful pictures and uploaded them to the camping grounds’ official Twitter account with the caption, “Waves frozen in place. A stunning moment in time.” Within days, the picture was retweeted 2,700 times and currently has a grand total of 6,641 reweets.

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Eventually, the picture became so popular that the keyword “Lake Kizaki” was trending on Yahoo! Japan’s homepage.

Mr. Arai, who has been working at Lake Kizaki for nine years, says this is the first time he has ever seen this spectacle. He uploaded even more wonderful pictures of the frozen Lake Kizaki on the Lake Kizaki campgrounds official blog. Take a look:

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Source: ITmedia