DESTINATIONS JAPAN | ASIA


star w travelweekly.co.uk


Natalie Marsh goes beyond Japan’s usual tourist trail to the northern region of Tōhoku


e’re on a monster hunt. Having almost reached the summit of Mount Zaō in northern Japan, our eyes are


peeled for snow monsters. They’re huge, quite hard to see – and dangerous if you get too close. To find them, we’re walking over snow that is several


metres deep, with the sky, ground and horizon all blending into the whitest white you could imagine. But after just a few minutes our guide points to our left – we found one! – and there we see the top of a snow monster poking up out of the snow. Luckily, they aren’t real monsters, but a natural phenomenon of layer upon layer of frozen rain and snow sticking to a tree, creating something that looks like an abominable snowman. The deep snow also creates huge wells around the trees, so we tentatively keep our distance as we walk single-file around these formations.


Mount Zaō is one of the most famous places in Japan to find these snow monsters and, along with its ski resort, draws visitors from far and wide. The mountain sits in the Tōhoku region, straddling the Miyagi and Yamagata prefectures. Although these areas are less visited than the country’s bigger tourist hotspots farther south, a bullet train to Tokyo can take you to Miyagi’s capital city, Sendai, in around 90 minutes. The Tōhoku region comprises the six northernmost


prefectures – Aomori, Akita, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi and Yamagata – on the main island of Honshu. Devastated by the tsunami and earthquake of 2011, the region, particularly the coast, has rebuilt, and the towering mountains, countryside and authentic villages and towns are just some of what makes the region so attractive. All eyes are on Japan at the moment, with the


 23 MAY 2019 63


North


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76