2026年5月– date –

What if we told you that one of Japan’s most exciting contemporary art destinations isn’t in Tokyo, Osaka, or Kyoto — but tucked away in a quiet regional city in Aomori Prefecture, surrounded by some of Tohoku’s most br...

A castle on the hill, steam rising from the streets below, vineyard rows stretching across the valley, and a festival in February where townsfolk drench performers in icy water for good luck — welcome to Kaminoyama Onsen, one of Yamagata...

There are cherry trees, and then there is Miharu Takizakura. Standing over 1,000 years old in the quiet hills of Fukushima Prefecture, this breathtaking weeping cherry tree cascades like a pink waterfall across the spring sky — and it ju...

When the Rugby World Cup came to Japan in 2019, Kamaishi — a small coastal city of around 33,000 people in Iwate Prefecture — became one of the competition’s most extraordinary stories. Just eight years after the devastating 2011 G...

At the very tip of the Shimokita Peninsula — Japan’s axe-shaped geographic landmark jutting dramatically into the Pacific — Cape Shiriyazaki stands as one of Tohoku’s most extraordinary and least-visited destinations. Here, w...

Tsuruoka doesn’t announce itself loudly. There’s no single explosive spectacle here — no neon canyon, no famous landmark on every visitor’s checklist. What Tsuruoka offers instead is something rarer: a city that has qui...

Straddling the border between Akita and Iwate prefectures, Hachimantai is one of Tohoku’s best-kept secrets — a vast volcanic plateau where steaming fumaroles pierce snow-dusted wetlands, autumn foliage blazes in every direction, a...

Imagine sitting on a tatami mat, chopsticks in one hand, as a server stands over you with a ladle — and the moment you swallow your soba noodles, another portion is slapped into your bowl before you can even draw breath. This is wanko so...

On a clear, moonless night in the mountains of Akita or Iwate, something remarkable happens: the sky fills with more stars than you’ve ever seen in your life. The Milky Way stretches from horizon to horizon in a river of silver lig...

Tucked away on Yamagata’s Sea of Japan coastline, Sakata is the kind of city that seasoned Japan travelers whisper about like a secret. Once one of Japan’s wealthiest merchant cities — a prosperous port where rice, sake, and ...