Akita Travel Video Guide

Akita Travel Itinerary

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One of the few big cities on the northwest coast of Japan, modern AKITA is an important port and industrial centre with access to some of the country's only domestic oil reserves. Though it was founded in the eighth century, almost nothing of the old city remains and Akita's few central sites - three contrasting museums - can easily be covered on foot in half a day. With its airport and Shinkansen services, however, Akita makes a convenient base for the region. The small town of Kakunodate , a short train ride to the east, preserves a street of two-hundred-year-old samurai houses, while nearby Tazawa-ko, Japan's deepest lake, offers boat rides and some attractive scenery, though it's generally outclassed by its northern rival, Towada-ko . Better to press on Nyuto Onsen, a group of hot springs 10km northeast of the lake at the end of the Sendatsu-gawa valley.

The city of Akita is also home to the last of the great Tohoku summer festivals ,

albeit a pleasantly low-key affair compared to events in Sendai and Aomori . In the Kanto Matsuri (Aug 4-7), men parade through the streets balancing tall bamboo poles strung with paper lanterns, which they transfer from their hip, to head, hand or shoulder while somehow managing to keep the swaying, top-heavy structure upright. Akita hosted the World Games ( www.wg2001.or.jp ), a sort of alternative Olympics, from August 16 to 26, 2001.

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