Akita ー
秋田
Street Lamp Festival:
Akita City is the prefectural seat of Akita Prefecture and it has been the central city of transportation and economy on the side of the Sea of Japan in the northern Tohoku since a long time ago. The Kanto Festival held in the city is a traditional festival having continued for more than 260 years that people hold long poles of bamboo with big lanterns hung and walk through the street.
Access and Getting Around
Because Akita City is metropolis of Akita Prefecture, it has a developed transportation network and is the terminal of the Akita Shinkansen from Tokyo. A 100 yen loop bus may take you to the main sights in the city.
By train
3 hours 15 minutes from Tokyo to Akita Station via the Akita Shinkansen with 2 trains per hour; 1 hour 35 minutes from Morioka.
By bus
3 hours 35 minutes from Sendai Station to Akita Station with 10 bus services per day; 30 minutes from Akita Airport to Akita Station.
By car
2 hours 15 minutes from Morioka Station, 2 hours 50 minutes from Aomori Station.
By plane
1 hour 10 minutes from Haneda in Tokyo to Akita with 9 flights per day. Other flights from Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo.
Features
-Festivals
The characteristic of this festival is its difficulty that people holdthe pole of 12 meters long, 50 kilograms weight, with 46 lanterns hung on it with different parts of bodyand have to keep balance which needs expert skills.It is held August 3 to 6 every year.The hotel reservation should be made in advance during the festival.The contest to fly in the summer night sky attracts visitors to watch....
-Culture
The previous red brick building of a bank is used as a museum.It is a good place to know about the history of entertainments, arts and crafts of Akita.The national treasure of alchemist (a technique to convert nonmetal into the products of the noble metal)who is Sekiya Shiro exhibition room is particularly unmissable....
Accommodation around Akita
