Akita, Japan: Castle Town, Lake Tazawa, and the Deep North's Rice Country

Lake Tazawa, sixty kilometers east of Akita by road, is the deepest lake in Japan at 423 meters. The water is a vivid, luminous blue that results from the depth and the absence of organic matter. The gilded statue of Tatsuko — a legendary beauty who prayed to remain beautiful forever and was transformed into a dragon — stands in the shallows at the lake's edge and is the region's most photographed image. A road circles the lake; the full circuit is nineteen kilometers and flat.

Nyuto Onsen, a cluster of seven traditional hot spring inns (ryokan) in a mountain valley above Lake Tazawa, is one of Japan's most secluded and celebrated onsen areas. Tsuru-no-yu, the oldest, dates to the seventeenth century and retains an outdoor mixed bath surrounded by white steam in a woodland clearing. Day use bathing is available at most of the inns without an overnight stay, for around 600 to 1,000 yen per person. The combination of Lake Tazawa and Nyuto Onsen makes a full day excursion.

Akita City itself has Senshu Park, a large public park on the site of Kubota Castle. The castle keep no longer stands, but the remaining gates and watchtower (Osumi Yagura) are preserved, and the park is pleasant in all seasons — cherry blossoms in late April, azaleas in May. The Akita Museum of Art, opened in 2013, holds Foujita Tsuguji's monumental painting Akita no Gyoji, commissioned for a Akita sake brewer — eleven meters wide and documenting Akita festivals and seasonal life.

The Omoriyama Zoological Garden, above the park, is small and free. Akita Inu, the famous native breed of dog associated with Hachiko, is kept and displayed here; the breed is from this region and the kennel is worth seeing if you have time.

Sake breweries cluster in the Kawabata district. Kariho Sake Brewery and Takashimizu are open for tours and tastings. Akita sake has a mild, slightly sweet character attributed to the soft glacial meltwater used in production.