Districts
[edit]
- 1 Kakunodate — a samurai town that claims to be the "little Kyoto of Tohoku"
- 2 Lake Tazawa — a lake and popular tourist area
- 3 Nyuto Onsen — a hot spring resort
- 4 Tamagawa
— a hot spring area in Hachimantai
Understand
[edit]Tourist information site
[edit]The city's official site has a good sightseeing section in English.
Get in
[edit]The Akita Shinkansen Komachi (こまち) from Tokyo, Sendai and Morioka makes a regular stop at JR Tazawako Station and JR Kakunodate Station. Komachi provides hourly service from Tokyo and the journey takes roughly 4 hr from Tokyo, 2½ hr from Sendai and 1hr from Morioka. All Komachi trains are reserved. If the trained is fully-booked, you can purchase standing seats. Japan Rail Pass is accepted.
Get around
[edit]From Lake Tazawako Station, buses depart for Nyuto Onsen, Tamagawa, and the Lake Tazawa area. There is also a special tour bus that circles Lake Tazawa and makes brief stops around the Tatsuko Statue and Gozanoishi Shrine. The Kakunodate samurai district can be reached on foot from Kakunodate Station. There are no buses between Kakunodate and the other areas, so you'll have to take a train to Tazawako Station and then take a bus to visit other areas from Kakunodate by public transport.
See
[edit]The cultural center of Semboku is Kakunodate, home of a well-preserved samurai district with a variety of historic buildings that can be entered. The Lake Tazawa area has a handful of attractions around the lake. Along with its hot springs, the Tamagawa area is known for its hell valley (jigokudani) where you can see Japan's most acidic water at pH1.2, as well as the only place in the nation where the radioactive Hokutolite ore is formed.
Do
[edit]
- 1 Nyuto Onsen (乳頭温泉郷). A lot of old hot springs. These are famous resorts for Japanese.
- 2 Tamagawa Hot Springs (玉川温泉). This onsen has the highest flow rate in Japan at 150 liters/second.
- 3 Paper Balloon Festival (紙風船上げ Kamifuusen Age), 西木町紙風船広場 (walk 7 min from Kamihinoki station, along National route 105), ☏ +81 187 43-3352. Feb 10, starts at 15:00. In this festival dating back more than a century, large decorated paper balloons are lit and float off in the evening sky. The evening can get cold, so warm clothing is recommended.
Buy
[edit]Eat
[edit]Drink
[edit]Sleep
[edit]As a city with multiple hot spring areas, inns and ryokan are the most common accommodations. Each of the areas that make up Nyuto Onsen have their own staying options. The Tamagawa area also has hot spring inns. There are larger hotels around Lake Tazawa. Because of all the hot springs, there aren't any business hotels or chain hotels in the city. Kakunodate has a small number of accommodations, but one of the stand-out options are former samurai residences that have been transformed into accommodations. They're among the only places in the country where you can stay in an actual samurai's former home.
Connect
[edit]Go next
[edit]| Routes through Semboku |
| Akita ← Omagari ← | W  E
|
→ Tazawa-ko → Shizukuishi → Morioka |