Tohoku Tabi: Prologue
I moved to Japan in November 2014. When I first arrived here, I lived in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka which is a small city facing the Pacific Ocean and smack dab in the middle of honshu, the main island in Japan. Hamamatsu was the perfect hub for traveling the Chubu (central-northern) and Kansai (southern-central) regions of Japan. I traveled a lot and discovered so many amazing places in those areas.
But, northern Japan is something that I’ve always thought about.
And not necessarily the separate island of Hokkaido. I’ve always been interested by Tohoku, the northern most region of honshu.
In a region battered by snow, how have the people of Tohoku adapted their ways of living?
In areas affected by the disastrous tsunami on March 3, 2011 – what reconstruction efforts look like?
How does the cuisine and food differ region by region, prefecture by prefecture in Tohoku?
Tohoku does a lot of things in three’s… the three most famous festivals in the Tohoku region, the three most sacred sites in Tohoku – what are these festivals and sites like?
I wanted to explore the mysteries of Tohoku.
So, this summer, I decided to travel around Tohoku by local train.
I don’t really find any answers to my questions, but having the oppurnity to experience, for a short while, what the atmosphere of Tohoku is like – was a precious and informative experience.
I’ll be doing an upcoming series highlighting my travels in Tohoku which will also include guides and write ups on:
- preparing and finding resources for planning a long trip in Japan
- how to use local trains and buses
- WWOOFing in Japan
- experiencing Tohoku’s Three Big Festivals: Nebuta, Kanto, and Sendai Tanabata
- pilgrammaging to Tohoku’s three most sacred sites: Osorezan, Dewasan Zan, and Kinkasan
- sightseeing for several of the main cities in Tohoku and also, off the beaten path gems
I also plan to do a post on how to deal with emergencies while traveling in Japan as we were faced with heavy rainfall and flooding while traveling through Yamagata, and it was quite a tense situation.
I hope my guides will be able to help you plan your trip if you ever decide to travel around Japan, especially Tohoku. If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me a message, and I would love to help you out.
If you don’t plan on coming to Japan, I hope that you enjoyed reading my posts and I thank you for taking the time to read them!