Mt. Fuji?, Sushi dinner? Kabuki show? Just forget them. They are boring. Although there is a lot of REAL fun stuff you should experience in this country, typical tours & guide books hardly show you those pleasant aspects local people usually enjoy. But don’t worry. This blog page can help you make your trip more enjoyable with the local recommendations and practical information. I promise my page stimulates your interest in traveling in Japan more than Lonely Planet does.
The atmosphere of the city is very
different than that of other ones in this area. It looks urbanized and sophisticated thanks to
the import of outside culture. Just walking
around the streets is fun enough to feel the distinctive character.
Japan is, as many of you know,
surrounded by the sea. The Pacific Ocean side is considered as the front side
of the country. Meanwhile, the side of Japan Sea is called the back side shore. I don’t know exactlyhow to decide the
front and back about the coastline. Probably because most of the major cities are located on the
Pacific Ocean side, that’s why it’s called “front”. But I can say the water is
cleaner at the back side sea than at the front side, because there are less big cities draining dirty water to the sea on the back side shore than on the front side.
The city of Sakata in Yamagata is located
on the Japan Sea side and one of main port cities in the back side Japan.
I visited a suburban beach of the city. The
water was truly clean.
Enjoy more photos of Asahi Town in Yamagata. I visited the suburbs of the town (which means I stepped into the deep countryside of this country) on another rainy day. Nothing but mountains and rice fields.
When you drive through the prefecture
of Yamagata, you definitely see 3 major features of the region.
There are (is) ;
(1) a lot of mountains.
(2) a lot of rice fields.
(3) Mogami River running through
almost every area of Yamagata.
I visited at Asahi Town which
is located almost in the middle of the prefecture and it has every characteristic
of Yamagata - mountains, rice fields, and Mogami River. Looks like a typical town of Yamagata.
There was a signboard on the
sidewalk of the closest highway to this large waterfall. It said this waterfall (located near the Goshiki-Numa area) was undiscovered till a small trail was built from that highway. It’s
kind of an amazing story, because this spot is only about 200m away from the
busy road.
It was admittedly surrounded by
the tall trees and invisible from the highway. But many people must have heard the falling water
sound when they walked or drove by. It’s big enough to attract the
attention of people. Interestingly, nobody knew where the waterfall would be
till a trial was built. It sounds like a treasure hunting story.
There are a lot of creeks running
through the woods of the Goshiki-Numa area. The water is so clean and the comfortable
sound of the flow makes you feel so relaxed.
Goshiki-Numa is one of the most
popular scenic spots in the Ura Bandai area. There are nine ponds which show different
colors changed by the natural factors. When we visited, most of them were in
blue.
Walking through a nature trail around
the ponds is quite fun. You can see every beautiful spot in a couple of hours.
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