The Deep North Japan

The Mountain Spanning Three Prefectures Kurikoma-san (栗駒山) is not a mountain that belongs to one place. Its body spans across Miyagi, Iwate, and Akita prefectures—a stratovolcano of andesitic composition, active according to Japan’s Meteorological Agency Level B classification. The mountain’s summit sits on the border between Miyagi and Iwate. At 1,626 meters, Kurikoma-san rises among the peaks of the Ou Mountains (奥羽山脈). It is counted among Japan’s 200 Famous Mountains (二百名山) and the Flower 100 Mountains. Yet the mountain holds a curious historical irony. Fukada Kyuya (深田久弥), author of Japan’s most celebrated mountain guide, wrote in the afterword of his 100 Famous Mountains that he should have included both Akita Komagatake and Kurikoma-san. ...

Wine in the Snow: How Okitama Became One of Japan’s Great Wine Regions Wine does not belong in snow country. And yet, here it thrives. The Okitama region (置賜地方) sits at the southern edge of Yamagata Prefecture, one of Japan’s four great wine-producing districts — a tier shared only with Yamanashi, Nagano, and Hokkaido. The story of this place begins not in 1990, when Takahata Winery was established, but far earlier: with Sakai Winery (酒井ワイナリー), in the nearby city of Nanyo, founded in 1892 — the oldest winery in Tohoku. A century after Sakai, Takahata Winery has become the largest winery operation in the region. ...

Soba Kingdom: Beyond the Plate Yamagata is a soba kingdom. The prefecture produces it at scale — 3,640 tons in 2021, about 8.9 percent of Japan’s national harvest. But the story is not just volume. It is about networks. In the mountain towns and river valleys of Yamagata’s interior, soba is woven into the social fabric. The Soba Kaido (蕎麦街道) — literally “buckwheat corridors” — are not single restaurants or tourist zones. They are designated pathways where soba shops cluster together, each maintaining its own style and identity, yet collectively embodying a shared philosophy: noodles as hospitality. ...

The Ride I Keep Coming Back To Every June, when the cherries in Yamagata’s orchards are heavy and nearly ready, a few hundred cyclists gather in Sagae (寒河江) — the self-styled capital of Japan’s cherry country — for a long ride called Tour de Sakuranbo (“Tour of the Cherries”). I have ridden it, and it is one of the reasons I know these back roads the way I do: not from a car window, but from the saddle, at the speed where you can smell the mown grass and hear the river. ...

The Mountain of Death: Gateway in the Journey of Rebirth The Dewa Sanzan (出羽三山) — the Three Mountains of Dewa — hold a singular power in Japanese pilgrimage. They are not climbed for a view or for conquest. They are climbed to be born again. The three mountains each represent a stage of life and death. Hagurosan (414m), green and gentle at the entrance, stands for the present world. Gassan (1,984m), high and severe, represents the past and the realm of the dead — a place where pilgrims undergo the ritual death of their old selves. Yudonosan (1,500m), the final mountain, is rebirth itself. To walk the three mountains in order — from present to death to rebirth — is called Sankan-sando (三関三渡), the pilgrimage of three barriers and three crossings. This is the journey of rebirth. ...

The Crater at 1,600 Meters Jododaira (浄土平) — the name means “the plain of the Pure Land” — sits at 1,600 meters on the Bandai-Azuma Skyline, the 29-kilometer ridge road that climbs through volcanic terrain between Fukushima City and the high ridges of the Azuma range. The landscape at this altitude shows what happens when a volcano stops erupting but the ground forgets to cool down. Fire-scarred rock slopes sweep away on all sides. Wetlands dotted with small ponds and pools catch the mist. Alpine flowers bloom where almost nothing else grows. It is a spare, high landscape — the kind of place where the forest ends and the true mountain begins. ...

The Lake You Can See But Not Reach Okama (御釜) is a crater lake — literally a cauldron — cradled in the arms of three peaks in the Zao mountain range: Mount Katta (刈田岳), Mount Kumano (熊野岳), and Mount Goshiki (五色岳). It sits on the Katta side, in the cratered hollow left behind when a small cone exploded around 2,000 years ago. The water that fills it is strongly acidic — pH 3.5 — and contains no living thing. ...

The Castle Town and Its Table Aizuwakamatsu is known as the “Little Kyoto” (小京都) of the northeast. Its centerpiece, Tsurugajo Castle (formally named Wakamatsu Castle), was reconstructed in 1965 (begun in 1964) and restored with red tiles in 2010. But the castle’s architecture is only the surface. The deeper story lies in the 1868 Boshin War, when Aizuwakamatsu endured approximately one month of siege. The conflict shaped the region’s collective identity—the samurai values of loyalty and honor embedded in what locals call the spirit of “justice” (義). The Byakkotai (white tiger corps) of young samurai chose self-inflicted death on Mount Iimori rather than surrender, a sacrifice still remembered at the graves and monuments on the mountain. ...

The Prefecture That Eats Peaches Fukushima does not grow more peaches than any other prefecture. Yamanashi leads nationally with 32 percent of Japan’s harvest; Fukushima holds 23 percent, placing it second. But in one measure Fukushima stands alone: consumption. The prefecture ranks first in per-household peach purchases — spending 7,424 yen annually per household in 2019, the highest of any city in the nation. Put another way, Fukushima residents eat roughly seven times the national average amount of peaches. ...

The Gateway That Holds Two Stories Shirakawa is not where most travelers come to begin their journey. It is where one man—Matsuo Basho—came to find his resolve. In Genroku 2 (1689), the poet traveled along the Narrow Road to the Deep North. Early in that journey, on his way into Fukushima, Basho crossed the Shirakawa Barrier. There, he wrote: “White River Gate approaches; my heart for travel is fixed.” It was the moment his pilgrimage began in earnest. ...

The Board, the Box, and a Custom of Gathering Ita-soba (板そば) is soba noodles served on a flat wooden board or shallow wooden box. The dish is named for its container: a board made from sugi (Japanese cedar) cut lengthwise, designed to hold noodles for groups. Ita-soba is widespread across Yamagata’s inland region (the Murayama area), where it carries the weight of rural memory. The origins of ita-soba trace back to a communal feeding custom known as furumai-soba — “hospitality soba.” According to local tradition, the dish arose because a single wooden box could hold enough soba to feed multiple people at once, making it practical for gatherings after farmwork, or for parceling out as a gift to neighbors who were away from home. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries records this same narrative: soba was plated on long boards or wooden boxes so that large groups could eat together, a practice that emerged around agricultural labor. ...

The Port Where Ramen Became Philosophy Sakata is a port town on the Sea of Japan coast in northern Yamagata Prefecture. In 1689, Matsuo Basho passed through Sakata during his journey along the Narrow Road to the Deep North—though not as its northernmost point. That honor belonged to Kisakata, in what is now Nikaho City, Akita Prefecture, the northernmost destination he set out to reach. Sakata itself remained a working port: a place of business, trade, and nourishment. ...