Akita

Akita is a prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast of northern Honshu, deep in snow country. Rice paddies and some of Japan's heaviest winter snowfalls shape life here, and the region is known across the country for its festivals and its sake.

Kakunodate preserves a street of dark wooden samurai mansions where weeping cherry trees bloom in late April. Lake Tazawa, Japan's deepest lake, holds a golden statue of the maiden Tatsuko just offshore, and Nyuto Onsen hides a cluster of rustic hot spring inns in beech forest above it.

August brings the Kanto Festival, when performers balance towering bamboo poles hung with lanterns through the streets of Akita City. Winter belongs to the Namahage, the ogre figures of the Oga Peninsula's New Year folk rituals. The Akita Shinkansen links the prefecture directly with Tokyo, and most visitors build a two-day loop around Kakunodate and Tazawa.