Akita Kanto Festival

"Hold me and turn around" gorge — a narrow granite canyon so tight that hikers must press against the rockface to pass. The emerald river reflects maple, beech and Japanese cedar creating tunnels of colour in autumn.

Inaniwa udon, produced in the small village of Inaniwa in southern Akita, is one of Japan's three great udon styles and has been made by hand using the same technique for over 350 years. Unlike the thick, chewy udon of Kagawa, Inaniwa noodles are thin, flat, and silky smooth, with a delicate bite that feels almost refined. The noodles are hand-stretched and dried over several days without machines. Eating them in their home region — hot in a light dashi broth or chilled in summer — is a markedly different experience from packaged versions sold elsewhere in Japan.

Japan's best-preserved samurai district outside Kyushu — a long avenue of black-walled samurai residences beneath weeping cherry trees, unchanged since the Edo period. Called the "Little Kyoto of Tohoku".