• Japan Guide

  • Introduction to Japan
  • Weather
  • Things not to miss
  • Getting around
  • Money
  • Public holidays

• Explore Japan

  • Tokyo
  • Around Tokyo
  • Northern Honshū
  • Hokkaidō
  • Central Honshū
  • Kyoto
  • Nara
  • Kansai
  • Western Honshū
  • Shikoku
  • Kyūshū
  • Okinawa

• Cities

  • Aizu-Wakamatsu
    
  • Akita
    
  • Aomori
    
  • Fukuoka
    
  • Hakodate
    
  • Hirosaki
    
  • Hiroshima
    
  • Kōbe
    
  • Kagoshima
    
  • Kakunodate
    
  • Kanazawa
    
  • Kumamoto
    
  • Kyoto
    
  • Matsue
    
  • Matsumoto
    
  • Matsuyama
    
  • Miyazaki
    
  • Nagano
    
  • Nagasaki
    
  • Nagoya
    
  • Naha
    
  • Nara
    
  • Narita
    
  • Niigata
    
  • Okayama
    
  • Ōsaka
    
  • Sapporo
    
  • Sendai
    
  • Shimonoseki
    
  • Takamatsu
    
  • Tokushima
    
  • Tokyo
    
  • Yamagata
    
  • Yamaguchi
    
  • Yokohama
    

Japan Guide

Northern Honshū

Yamagata

• Accommodation
• Eating

Few tourists make it to YAMAGATA, a large, workaday city ringed by high mountains, and those that do are usually just passing through. Apart from a couple of engaging museums, Yamagata's prime attraction is as a base for visiting nearby Yamadera's atmospheric temples, and Zaō Onsen, which provides excellent opportunities for summer hiking and winter skiing, and is known for its beguiling "snow monsters" – fir trees engulfed in wind-sculpted ice and snow. In early August (5–7), the city turns out for its major festival, the Hanagasa Matsuri, during which yukata-clad women wearing flowery hats perform a slow, graceful dance.