TOHOKU
AKITA, IWATE & AOMORI
AUGUST 2027
Duration
Group Size
10 nights / 11 days
July 31, - Aug 10, 2027
Max 6 guests
Min 2 guests
Starting Point
Ending Point
Kakunodate
Akita Prefecture
Aomori
Aomori Prefecture
Train Access
Tokyo: ~3 hours
Price
Estimated
AUD $9,000 - $12,000
Final price TBC
Tohoku is Japan's far north, a region of deep winters, hot springs buried in beech forests, ancient Jomon sites with goggle-eyed figurines that look like they came from another planet, and food cultures built around the cold ocean currents, preservation, and cold-climate rice farming. And in August, for about two weeks, it erupts into a giant party.
We start quietly in the samurai district of Kakunodate, where weeping cherries have been hanging over the same earthen walls for 300 years and a 150-year-old soy sauce brewery is still fermenting down the road. From there we drive north through gorges and one of Japan's most remote onsen clusters, eating kiritanpo nabe around an open hearth before the party starts.
We drop into Akita for Kanto Matsuri, where performers balance 12-metre bamboo poles hung with paper lanterns on their foreheads, shoulders, and hips. Then Morioka for the Sansa Odori finale, where 30,000 people pour into the street to dance together, and for the wanko soba challenge, where tiny bowls keep arriving until you physically cover yours with the lid. Then Aomori for Nebuta, one of Japan's three largest festivals, where enormous illuminated floats depicting warriors and demons are paraded through the streets to a thundering backdrop of taiko drums and flutes, and for the seafood, pulled from some of the coldest and most productive waters in Japan.
The tour will be led by Michael, who has been travelling and eating his way through Japan since 2007, including time living there, and speaks Japanese.
TRIP HIGHLIGHTS
THE FESTIVAL RUN
August in Tohoku means the air smells like cedar and gunpowder and the streets don't clear until past midnight. At Akita Kanto Matsuri, 250 performers parade through the streets balancing bamboo poles, each hung with up to 46 paper lanterns, and shifting them from palm to forehead to shoulder to hip as they go. Morioka's Sansa Odori is a giant dance party, with the worlds largest drum procession parading through the streets on the final night. We end with Aomori Nebuta Matsuri, where a thundering procession of warrior- and demon-shaped lantern floats parade through the city streets, taiko echoing off the buildings, dancers leaping alongside the floats in elaborate costumes. These festivals happen across a one week period in August, and we’ll race across the region to experience them all.
THE FOOD OF HOKURIKU
Cold climate, short growing season, long winters. The food here was built for preservation and ended up being genuinely strange and very good. In Akita we're going after kiritanpo nabe, toasted rice skewers cooked in Hinai chicken broth, and jajamen, a thick miso meat sauce on flat noodles that ends with a raw egg cracked into the remaining broth. In Morioka there's the wanko soba challenge, where tiny bowls keep arriving until you physically cover yours with the lid to indicate you’ve had your fill. The the cold waters off the Tohoku coast produce some of Japan's finest uni, scallops, and tuna, best eaten as close to the water as possible. We’ll do just that at the fish market in Aomori, where you build your own seafood rice bowl by wandering between stalls with a fistful of tickets.
ONSEN AND NATURE
Nyuto Onsen is a cluster of seven old inns buried in the beech forest above Lake Tazawa, deep in the mountains of Akita. The most famous, Tsurunoyu, has been here since the Edo period, with milky sulphurous outdoor baths, thatched rooflines, and an interior built around an open hearth where dinner is cooked in iron pots. We'll spend a night here, walk the nature trail connecting the seven inns through the forest, and then drop down to Lake Tazawa, Japan's deepest lake, before cutting through Dakigaeri Gorge, where the water runs emerald green under a vermilion suspension bridge 30 metres above a waterfall
SAMURAI TOWNS AND LIVING CRAFT
Kakunodate is one of the best-preserved samurai districts in Japan, where the earthen walls and weeping cherries of the bukeyashiki quarter look much as they did 300 years ago. Inside the Ishiguro House you'll find samurai armour, 1774 Dutch anatomy illustrations, and a pair of geta ice skates that tell you something about life this far north. Down the road, Ando Jozo has been brewing soy sauce in the same building for 150 years. We'll taste multiple varieties side by side and discover that soy sauce ice cream is, in fact, a thing that exists, and it's wonderful. Fujita brewery, also in Kakunodate, has been fermenting rice since the Meiji era and pours some of the finest sake in Akita Prefecture. Further north on the Tsugaru Peninsula, Takayama Inari Shrine strings hundreds of torii gates up a hillside above the Sea of Japan, a smaller and quieter version of Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari that you can actually have to yourself.
THE JOMON WORLD
Japan's Jomon period lasted over 10,000 years, longer than almost any other continuous culture on earth, and Tohoku was its heartland. At Sannai Maruyama near Aomori, a UNESCO-listed settlement with reconstructed pit houses and a wall made of 5,120 pottery fragments gives a real sense of the scale of what was here. At Kamegaoka, further along the Tsugaru Peninsula, the site where the goggle-eyed Shakoki-dogu figurines were excavated looks unremarkable today — a quiet patch of ground — which makes it stranger still that something this extraordinary came out of it. The figurines, with their oversized eyes and what appears to be protective suits, have been fuelling speculation about their origins since they were first dug up in the 19th century. Nobody has fully explained them.
GET OFF THE EATEN TRACK WITH US
Want to know more? Here's how it works.
Register your interest using the form and we'll be in touch to set up a quick call, a chance to answer your questions and give you a deeper look at what the trip involves. From there, a 25% non-refundable deposit secures your spot. The remaining balance is due 60 days before departure. Check our full T&Cs here.
The full day-by-day itinerary and accommodation guide are coming soon, and formal bookings will open then. In the meantime, our FAQ covers everything from what's included to our cancellation policy.
We’ll be traveling around by van, which is the only way to reach some of the places we're going, so group size is intentionally capped at six.
See our other Japan Tours here.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
General Hokuriku FAQ
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Tohoku is the northern region of Japan's main island of Honshu, covering six prefectures: Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Miyagi, Yamagata, and Fukushima. Historically isolated from the main population centres to the south by mountains and harsh winters, the region developed distinct food cultures, craft traditions, and local identities that remain strong today. It is one of Japan's most agricultural regions, producing some of the country's finest rice, sake, and seafood.
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Tohoku is known for its summer festival circuit, which includes three of Japan's largest and most spectacular matsuri: Aomori Nebuta, Akita Kanto, and Morioka Sansa Odori, all held within days of each other in early August. The region is also known for its onsen, particularly the remote mountain clusters of Nyuto Onsen in Akita; its seafood, drawn from the cold nutrient-rich waters of the Sanriku coast; its sake, with Akita alone home to 36 breweries; and the Jomon archaeological sites of Aomori, including the UNESCO-listed Sannai Maruyama settlement.
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Akita is known for kiritanpo nabe, toasted rice skewers simmered in Hinai chicken broth, and iburigakko, radish pickled in the smoke of an open hearth. Iwate's Morioka is known for its three noodle dishes: wanko soba, jajamen, and reimen. Aomori produces some of Japan's finest seafood, including uni, scallops, and tuna from the cold waters of the Tsugaru Strait and Sanriku coast. The region also has a strong fermentation culture, with shottsuru fish sauce and numerous miso and soy sauce traditions.
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The three main Tohoku summer festivals all take place in early August and are among the largest in Japan. Aomori Nebuta Matsuri (August 2–7) features enormous illuminated floats depicting warriors and demons paraded through the streets at night. Akita Kanto Matsuri (August 3–6) sees performers balancing bamboo poles hung with up to 46 paper lanterns on their foreheads, shoulders, and hips. Morioka Sansa Odori (August 1–4) is one of the world's largest drum processions, with tens of thousands of people dancing through the streets on the final night.
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Early August is the peak of the festival season and the best time to experience the three major matsuri. Summers in Tohoku are warm and humid, cooler than Tokyo but still hot enough that evenings at the festivals are lively and comfortable. Autumn (October to November) brings spectacular foliage across the mountain regions. Spring is known for cherry blossoms, particularly the weeping cherries of Kakunodate's samurai district, which bloom in late April. Winter is long and heavy with snow, which makes Tohoku one of Japan's better skiing destinations, with resorts in Zao and Hakkoda drawing serious powder hounds. Outside of the August festival period, the region sees far fewer visitors than the main tourist corridors, though transport between smaller towns can require more planning, as local train and bus services are less frequent than in central Japan.
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The Tohoku Shinkansen connects Tokyo to the major cities of the region. Sendai is around 90 minutes, Morioka around two hours, and Shin-Aomori around three hours. Akita is reached via the Akita Shinkansen from Tokyo in around four hours, with a stop at Kakunodate. Domestic flights from Tokyo's Haneda airport to Aomori and Akita are also an option, with flights taking around 75 minutes.
Tour FAQ
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The Hokuriku May 2027 tour is estimated at AUD $8,000–$11,000 per person. Final pricing will be confirmed when the full itinerary and accommodation guide are released. For a guide to what's typically included and excluded in OTET tour pricing, see our FAQ page.
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The tour covers Kakunodate's samurai district in Akita, the Nyuto Onsen cluster and Lake Tazawa, Akita city for Kanto Matsuri, Morioka for Sansa Odori, and Aomori city and the Tsugaru Peninsula for Nebuta Matsuri. The full day-by-day itinerary is coming soon.
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We generally stay in a mix of three and four star hotels, with at least one stay at an onsen hotel during the trip. We always choose onsen hotels that allow for private bathing, ensuring all guests have a chance to experience an onsen, even if they have tattoos or are uncomfortable with nudity. A full accommodation guide will be published alongside the itinerary.
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Six people fit comfortably in a van. It’s that simple. Travelling as a small group means we can reach places a coach tour never could, eat at restaurants that wouldn't seat big groups, and visit producers who work on a scale that doesn't accommodate large groups.
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The tour is led by Michael Minsky, who has lived in Japan and travelled there regularly since 2007. He’s been been organising and guiding food-focused tours in Japan for years, speaks Japanese and has personal experience of most of the places on this itinerary.
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Register your interest using the form on this page. We'll be in touch to set up a call, answer your questions, and walk you through the trip in more detail. A 25% non-refundable deposit secures your spot, with the remaining balance due 60 days before departure. Full details are in our Terms of Service.