Akita Hidden Gems
Akita has the oldest population of any prefecture and one of the fastest-shrinking, and that shows up in travel in a way worth knowing before you arrive: towns are quiet, shops shut early, and the folk traditions are maintained by communities that treat them as obligations rather than attractions. The Namahage of the Oga peninsula are the clearest case — masked figures who go house to house on New Year's Eve to frighten idle children, a rite that never stopped being one. The land is rice country, flat basins between the mountains and the Sea of Japan, and the water and the cold are also why the prefecture holds one of the highest concentrations of sake breweries in Japan. Lake Tazawa, 423 metres deep, is the deepest lake in the country and does not freeze. Behind it the Nyuto hot springs sit at the end of a mountain road, with milky water and wooden bathhouses older than the road that reaches them.
38 spots
Climate & Best Season
Very heavy winter snow and grey Sea-of-Japan skies; short, warm summers. February for snow festivals, August for Kanto Matsuri.
Famous For (Food)
- Kiritanpo hotpot
- Inaniwa udon
- Sake
- Hinai-jidori chicken
Signature Sights
- Kakunodate samurai district
- Lake Tazawa
- Nyuto Onsen
- Namahage folk rituals
When to Go
The snow is the defining fact. Akita City takes heavy Sea of Japan falls from December to March, the Nyuto road demands care, and February is when the winter rites happen — the Yokote kamakura snow huts and the Namahage Sedo fire festival. Summer is short and warm, with August highs around 30°C, and the Kanto Matsuri, in which performers balance long poles of lit lanterns, runs in the first week of August. Kakunodate's cherry blossoms open in late April. Autumn colour is best around Nyuto and Tazawa in mid-October, and September belongs to the rice harvest.
Getting Around
The Akita Shinkansen reaches Akita from Tokyo in about four hours, dropping to conventional-line speed after Morioka, and it stops at Kakunodate and Tazawako — which makes those two the easiest points in the prefecture to reach. Akita Airport is roughly an hour from Haneda with a bus into the city. Beyond that line service thins quickly: the Oga peninsula has a short branch, and the Gono line along the northern coast is scenic but slow. Nyuto Onsen is a bus from Tazawako Station, running less often in winter. For the Shirakami foothills or the inland villages, take a car.
Local Food
Kiritanpo is pounded rice moulded onto cedar skewers, toasted, then simmered in a hotpot with Hinai-jidori, a local chicken breed — a winter dish before anything else. Inaniwa udon is made in Yuzawa in the south, thin and flat and hand-stretched, and usually served cold. The breweries cluster around Yokote and Yuzawa and most take visitors. Babahera, an ice cream scooped from roadside parasols by older women through the summer, is a genuine local fixture rather than a souvenir.
Gono Line and Resort Shirakami
The Gono Line runs 147 kilometres from Higashi-Noshiro in Akita to Kawabe in Aomori, and for about eighty of them it is…
Tsuchizaki Float Festival
Tsuchizaki was Akita's port, and its shrine festival has been running since the eighteenth century. On 20 and 21 July ea…
Masuda Uchigura
Masuda's merchants were rich on tobacco, silk and finance, and they built their storehouses inside their houses. An uchi…
Oyu Stone Circles
Two stone circles, Manza and Nonakado, stand on a river terrace in Kazuno, each a double ring of river cobbles carried u…
Sato Yoske Head Shop
Inaniwa udon is flat, thin, translucent and unusually smooth, and it is made by hand in a process that takes four days:…
Akita Nairiku Line
The Akita Nairiku Line runs ninety-four kilometres north to south through the middle of the prefecture, from Takanosu to…
Isedotai Site
Isedotai has four stone circles, which is unique in Japan — every other Jomon circle site has one or two. They sit on a…
Kisakata Kujukushima
Basho came to Kisakata in 1689 and wrote that Matsushima seems to smile while Kisakata seems to grieve. What he saw was…
Nyudozaki
The northern tip of the Oga peninsula, where a treeless grass headland runs out to low cliffs and stops. There are no tr…
Tamagawa Onsen
Tamagawa produces nine thousand litres a minute from a single source at 98 degrees and pH around 1.2 — the largest singl…
Goshogake Onsen
Goshogake sits at about a thousand metres on the western flank of Hachimantai in an area of active geothermal ground, an…
Kanpuzan Rotating Observatory
Kanpuzan is a lava dome at the neck of the Oga peninsula, 355 metres high and covered entirely in grass — no trees, just…
Ogata Village Polder Museum
Lake Hachirogata was the second-largest lake in Japan. Between 1957 and 1977 it was drained — a national project using D…
Babahera Ice
From March to November, on roadsides and at events across Akita, women sit under pink and yellow parasols beside metal d…
Mototaki Fukuryusui
Rain and snowmelt on Mt. Chokai sink into the volcanic rock, travel underground for decades, and come out here — not ove…
Kosaka Mine Office
Kosaka was, at the start of the twentieth century, the largest producer of silver in Japan and later of copper, and in 1…
Akita Folk Performing Arts Hall
Akita has an unusual concentration of surviving folk performance — the Kanto pole-balancing of the city, the Tsuchizaki…
Korakukan
Korakukan was built in 1910 as a welfare facility for the Kosaka mine, which was then one of the richest in Japan, and i…
Oga Peninsula
Oga Peninsula (男鹿半島) juts 30 kilometers into the Sea of Japan from Akita's western coast, forming a rugged landscape of…
Kakunodate Samurai District
Kakunodate preserves 2 kilometers of samurai district from the Edo period, with wide unpaved streets lined by black wood…
Lake Towada (Akita side)
Lake Towada (十和田湖) is a double-caldera lake straddling the Akita-Aomori border, formed by volcanic eruptions 13,000 and…
Dakigaeri Gorge
Dakigaeri Gorge (抱返り渓谷) is a 10-kilometer river valley carved by the Tamagawa River, renowned as one of Tohoku's premier…
Akita Kanto Festival
The Akita Kanto Festival (秋田竿燈まつり) is one of Tohoku's three great festivals, held annually August 3-6. The centerpiece i…
Omoriyama Zoo
Akita City Omoriyama Zoo (秋田市大森山動物園) is one of Japan's few zoos emphasizing cold-climate species and winter adaptations.…
Lake Tazawa
Lake Tazawa (田沢湖) is Japan's deepest lake at 423 meters, located in Akita's mountainous interior. The depth creates an o…
Akita Inu Dogs
Akita Inu (秋田犬) are one of Japan's six native dog breeds, designated a Natural Monument in 1931. Originating in the Odat…
Yokote Kamakura Festival
The Yokote Kamakura Festival (横手のかまくら) is a 450-year-old winter tradition held annually February 15-16, where the city c…
Illustration — not a photographKiritanpo
Kiritanpo (きりたんぽ) is Akita's signature comfort food, originating from the mountainous Kazuno region where woodcutters an…
Senshu Park
Senshu Park (千秋公園) occupies the site of Kubota Castle (久保田城), the Edo-period stronghold of the Satake clan who ruled Aki…
Hinai-jidori Chicken
Hinai-jidori (比内地鶏) is one of Japan's three premier chicken breeds (alongside Nagoya Cochin and Satsuma chicken), native…
Akita Sake Breweries
Akita Prefecture is one of Japan's top sake-producing regions, with cold winters, pure mountain water, and high-quality…
Akita Museum of Art
The Akita Museum of Art (秋田県立美術館) is a striking triangular glass building designed by architect Tadao Ando, housing the…
Namahage
Namahage are demon-gods from Oga Peninsula folklore, part of Akita's New Year traditions since the Edo period. They wear…
Nyuto Onsen
Nyuto Onsen (乳頭温泉郷) is a cluster of seven secluded hot spring inns deep in the Towada-Hachimantai National Park, 50 kilo…
Oga Aquarium GAO
Oga Aquarium GAO (男鹿水族館GAO) perches on a cliff overlooking the Sea of Japan, specializing in cold-water species native t…
Shinzan Shrine
Shinzan Shrine (真山神社) in Oga Peninsula is the spiritual home of the Namahage tradition, where ritual demon costumes are…
Hachimantai Plateau
Hachimantai Plateau (八幡平) is a volcanic highland straddling the Akita-Iwate border, part of Towada-Hachimantai National…
Illustration — not a photographInaniwa Udon
Inaniwa udon (稲庭うどん) is one of Japan's three most famous udon varieties (alongside Sanuki and Kishimen), distinguished b…