Japan Tohoku, some people may not know where this place is. In fact, the Japanese think of the Tohoku is what we call “outskirt area” or so-called “kampung”. This area here has a sparsely populated, most of the area is covered by forest, four distinct seasons. Because of this, the local people live simpler, and also remain their traditional culture. The similar to Hokkaido’s cold winter is also a special characteristic here. Tohoku are having a total 6 county, which are Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Yamagata, Miyagi and Fukushima.

Japan turns in to winter season on December every year, the cold air from Siberia passes through the Straits of Japan and becomes wet and cold. As the air blows into the coast of Japan, it blocked by the mountains along the coast, resulting a heavy snowfall. Especially Tohoku area, where snow thicknesses can be as high as 3-6 meters. This is why Tohoku becomes a first choice for many visitors who enjoy snow watching or winter sports. The winter in Tohoku has many breathtaking scenery and tourist attractions.

First of all, the most spectacular spot here will be Snow Monster, while taking the bus from the hotel in Sendai City to the Mount Zao, the view outside the window is still sunny. But just about half an hour later, the view outside the bus window changed and the snow began to fall. The mountains around us start to has snow covered on top, the houses are also covered with a layer of snow, the view suddenly turned into a fairy tale-like romantic scene. The beautiful snow scene makes the passengers in the bus start to awake, and taken out their mobile phones or cameras to snap or record down the fantastic view around us.

The snow still falling after we arrived to the Mount Zao. Thousands of visitors come to this place, whether local or foreign, are aim to the snow activities here and also the “Snow Monster”. At the same time, because the fog or water vapor below the freezing point of ice freezes on the branches to form a variety of shapes, some of which look like monsters or some weird shape, this is why the locals call them as “Snow Monsters”. The formation of these very demanding weather and geographical conditions, it must be a fixed direction of strong winds blowing for a long time in order to forming the “Snow Monster”. Only Mount Zao and some northeast regions can see this type of unique scene in the whole Japan. During the riding of cable car up to the Mount Zao, we can see the fantastic and unique scenery clearly.

Another important part of the trip is Ginzan Onsen Street, the 400-year-old town. Its name means “silver mine hot spring”. On both sides of the valley retains the Dazheng to Zhaohe period (1912-1926) of wood-built old-fashioned hotel, the stone-built road, bridge, old-style lamp and so on, the visitors here keep snapping a picture or record a video using their camera or mobile phone. Besides enjoying the beautiful scenery, there are “foot hot-spring” pool everywhere to relax the after the previous jorney.

The tour takes us a retro-typed sightseeing train to Lake Tazawa. You may enjoy the beauty of the Japan Akita countryside while enjoying the leisurely railway trip. The sightseeing train, which was originally used as the Akita private railway for the transportation of timber, was operated until 1989 merged to become the Akita Nairuku Line. Although you can enjoy different scenery all year round, but the winter scene is always the highlight of this railway tour. The special and warm carriages are full of the pictures of Akita dogs, and there are a lady selling snacks and explain the scenery during the journey. Trains will also slow down when pass through a special scenery so that the passengers can take a clearer picture of it.

Besides the beautiful scenery, Tohoku also own a lot of special cuisine which is very tradition based. Although it seems like a simple decoration and simple cuisine, but it full of the considerate of Japanese and they also make the whole cuisine nutritional balance. This is the most authentic Japan style cuisine. Let’s forget about the Malaysia’s food, as we traveled to Japan, we have to temporarily put aside those so-called Malaysian food and eating habits, then can only really experience the Japanese food culture. Below are the sample of Japanese style Cuisine.