Stories
From the Field
autumnNature
Oirase Gorge: Walking Japan's Most Beautiful River
For fourteen kilometres, the Oirase River tumbles through a primeval beech forest in Aomori Prefecture, passing mossy rocks, ferns older than memory, and waterfalls that appear around every bend. It is, by almost any measure, the most beautiful river walk in Japan.
winterNature
Tohoku in Winter: Zao's Ice Monsters and Snow Country
On the slopes of Mount Zao in Yamagata, winter storms coat the snow-covered trees in layers of ice until they become vast white sculptures — the juhyo, or ice monsters. It is one of Japan's most otherworldly natural phenomena, and it happens only here.
allNature
Japan's Golden Secret: Hiraizumi's 12th-Century Temple
In a quiet Iwate valley, a 900-year-old hall covered entirely in gold leaf has outlasted dynasties, wars, and the indifference of centuries. Hiraizumi's Konjikido is Japan's most extraordinary secret — and the reason Tohoku's identity is built on gold.