Things to Do in Tohoku, Japan
The rugged, uncrowded northeast: samurai towns, festivals, mountain onsen and deep autumn colour.
84 destinations across 6 prefectures
Festivals in Tohoku
Photo: Rarisan / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
Yokote Kamakura Snow Festival
15 to 16 February 2027
Akita · Snow and ice festival
© Rosino / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Hirosaki Neputa Matsuri
1 to 7 August 2027
Aomori · Lantern festival
Aomori Nebuta Matsuri
2 to 7 August 2027
Aomori · Lantern festival
© 秋田市 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Akita Kanto Matsuri
3 to 6 August 2027
Akita · Lantern festival
© 掬茶 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sendai Tanabata Matsuri
6 to 8 August 2027
Miyagi · Lantern festival
© KANSEI / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Omagari Fireworks
28 August 2027
Akita · Fireworks festival
Suggested Itineraries
Places to Visit in Tohoku
Mount Bandai
The Volcano Whose 1888 Collapse Made Goshikinuma and Lake Hibara
A 1,816-meter volcano above Lake Inawashiro whose north side blew out on July 15, 1888, burying v...
Sendai Castle Ruins
Above Sendai on wooded Aobayama, Date Masamune’s former stronghold combines imposing stone walls ...
Shayokan (Dazai Osamu Memorial Museum)
Dazai Osamu's Birthplace, the Big Hiba House His Father Built in 1907
The house in Kanagi where the novelist Dazai Osamu was born in 1909, built two years earlier by h...
Naruko Onsen
Kokeshi Dolls, a 300-Yen Sulfur Bath by the Shrine, and a Gorge That Fills Up in Autumn
A hot spring town in the hills of northwest Miyagi, about 45 minutes from Furukawa on the JR Riku...
Michi-no-Eki A-ra-Date
Royce' chocolate and Osaki produce on Route 47
One of the busiest roadside stations in Tohoku, on Route 47 in Iwadeyama on the way to Naruko Ons...
Michi-no-Eki Yonezawa
Yonezawa beef at the edge of the expressway
A large station opened in 2018 about 200 meters from Yonezawa-Chuo IC on the Tohoku-Chuo Expressw...
Goshono Site
A Jomon Village With Earth-Roofed Pit Houses, Across a Covered Wooden Bridge in Ichinohe
The site of a Jomon village on a plateau above the Mabechi River in Ichinohe, northern Iwate, liv...
Korekawa Site
Lacquered Jomon Combs and the Gassho Dogu: Hachinohe's Korekawa Site and the Museum Beside It
A Jomon site in the southern hills of Hachinohe, Aomori, where a waterlogged ritual deposit prese...
Mount Chokai
Dewa Fuji: 2,236 m From a 1,150 m Trailhead, With Snow Into July
A 2,236 m active volcano on the Akita and Yamagata border, about 16 km from the Sea of Japan and ...
Ryusendo Cave
Clear Blue Underground Lakes in a Limestone Cave Deep in the Iwate Hills
A limestone cave in Iwaizumi with about 700 meters open to visitors and three lit underground lak...
Sukayu Onsen
A 160-Mat Mixed Bath Where the Snow Once Reached 5.66 Meters
A single mountain inn at about 890 m in the Hakkoda range, known for the Hiba Sennin-buro, a pill...
Michi-no-Eki Kisakata Nemu-no-Oka
A sea-view bath and sunset on the Akita coast
A roadside station on Route 7 right on the Sea of Japan in Kisakata. A fourth-floor hot-spring ba...
Tamagawa Onsen
A pH 1.2 Spring Pouring Out of the Ground Above Lake Tazawa
A hot-spring cure town 43 km up a mountain road from Tazawako Station, built around the Obuki sou...
Michi-no-Eki Fureai Park Kita-no-Sato
Kitakata ramen and a hot bath on the road to Yonezawa
A station on Route 121 just north of Kitakata, where the restaurant makes its ramen with flour fr...
Michi-no-Eki Inakadate
Rice paddy art from a viewing tower near Hirosaki
A Route 102 bypass stop in the village that started Japan's rice paddy art. From the viewing towe...