Tadami

TadamiUNESCO Biosphere Reservebeech forestLake Tagokurasnow country

Fukushima · Tadami

37.3452°N, 139.3132°E

Tadami is at the western edge of Fukushima against the Niigata border, and it is the only UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Tohoku. The reason is snow. Several metres fall here every winter, and the weight and duration of it has produced beech forest of a kind that has largely disappeared elsewhere in Japan, with plant communities adapted to a mountain basin ringed by thousand-metre peaks.

The town explains itself at the Tadami Beech and River Museum, which covers the forest, the wildlife and the tools of a life lived under snow. Above the town, Lake Tagokura is the reservoir of a hydroelectric dam built more than sixty years ago and holds the second largest volume of water in Japan, with a viewpoint on the left bank. The Tadami Line, one of the great rural railways, runs through all of it.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

Town accessible year-round | Museum keeps its own hours

Closed: Mountain roads closed by snow in winter | Museum has its own rest days

Entrance Fee

Free to visit | Beech and River Museum charged separately

Best Season

Late May–June for fresh beech | Late October for autumn colour | Winter for deep snow

Visit Duration

Half a day

Getting There

Access Information

Tadami, Minamiaizu District, at the western edge of Fukushima. Reachable on the JR Tadami Line or by car via Route 252. The Tadami Beech and River Museum in the town centre displays the forest, wildlife and snow-country tools, and charges its own admission. The Tagokura Lake View viewpoint sits on the left bank of the dam. Winter brings several metres of snow and closes some mountain roads entirely.

Insider Guide

Premium

**The snow is the reason it is a Biosphere Reserve.** Metres of it, for months, producing beech forest that has gone almost everywhere else. That is worth knowing before you look at the trees. **Start at the Beech and River Museum.** It is the only place that puts the forest, the wildlife and the snow-country tools in one frame, and it is a short walk from the station. **Tagokura is a working reservoir.** More than sixty years old, second in Japan by volume, with a viewpoint on the left bank of the dam. The scale reads properly from there. **Come by the Tadami Line if you possibly can.** The railway through this valley is one of the most celebrated in Japan and services are few, which makes the journey the day rather than the transport. **Winter is severe.** Several metres of snow, closed mountain roads and a genuinely isolated town. That is a reason to come in winter, but not casually.

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