Touhoku area (東北地方)

I will introduce the prefectures of Touhoku area. Touhoku area is constituted of the six prefectures which are Aomori(青森), Akita(秋田), Iwate(岩手), Yamagata(山形), Miyagi(宮城), Fukushima(福島). There is the Seikan tunnel(青函トンネル) which is a railway tunnel between Aomori and Hokkaido. Its total length is about ５７km. It is like the Channel tunnel of Europe.

And Aomori have a very famous festa called Nebutamaturi(ねぶた祭り). People parade with very big dolls called Dashi(山車) on the street. This festa is very beautiful and　exuberant. Many people visit this festa in summer. And Aomori is No.１ perfecture in Japan on a yield of apples. Akita perfecture is production area of rices. The rices producted in Akita are famous for deliciousness.

Hokkaido

  Hokkaido is the northernmost big island in Japan. The area is about the same size of Iceland. Avarage temperature of the area in winter is about -6℃. It is very cold, isn't it？ One of the aspects of Hokkaido is delicious foods like fishes of salmon, sea egg, salmon roe, and crops of potato, asparagus.

The nature in the north area of Hokkaido is beautiful. There are many national nature park there and range wild animals like bear , fox, crane, etc. One of the specialty of the sightseeing in Hokkaido is to see Japanese cranes in winter. The cranes range the north area of Hokkaido and many tourists visit there to see them. The cranes are national nature treasure of Japan. The courting dance and call of the cranes are very beautiful.