Travel in Akita a number of times.

Getting to Akita:
Akita is quite a ride from Tokyo and the best way to get there is either via a plane from Hanada Airport takes around 1hr or via the Shinkansen which takes around 4 hrs you can get this from either Tokyo station or Ueno station. Cost around 26,000 yen the same for the flight.
If you have time then for around 10,000 yen you can get a week rail pass this is a nice way to see the country, However, you can only use Local trains so the fastest train you can use is the limited express.

Things to do in Akita:

Yoshinobu Satake`s Castle
Oga
Libabry
Alive Building
Senshu Koen
chokaisan

Food to try
Rice Akita is very famous for rice
kiritanmpo

My Travels:
While I was travelling in Akita over golden week and a few other times of coming to Akita, I went with my wife and kids to the park, we also took a trip to Oga, Oga is very famous for the namaagaie a monster pictured above This monster comes out at night if the children don't sleep and kidnaps them or something its old Japanese folk law and every town has something smilier. I wrote about this monster earlier in my blogs.

I would spend a few days in Akita city before going to see some of the other attractions of Akita, there are a number of sites to see here in the town, Senshu Koen, is one of them and you can see some of this in the pictures in this blog. Senshu Koen is also famous has it has one of the famous budduh`s there are a number of these spread out around Japan and the most famous is in Nara in Todaiji temple.

There are some off the famous Akita festival this happens in the summer and in the festival they carry lanterns with one arm this depicts the rice. The park we went to also houses one of the most famous buddhus in Japan there are a number of these budduhs the most famous being in Todaiji temple Nara Japan.

Times to come to Akita, Akita is very cold in the winter so I would probably avoid this time unless you love skiing. There are a few mountain areas and they are also famous for some of the best onsen`s in Japan(spa pools) One of the spa`s we like to go to is called the boon its more of a kids swimming pool with a outside onsen in the mountains just out side of the city. They have a free bus that comes to pick you up in the town which is really good.

I would go to Akita around May to Aug, Aug is a very nice time to come as they have a festival for the rice, its really nice to see the men are trained to carry lanterns with one hand not sure how they do it these things are about 40kgs.

The alive building the new home of NHK Akita, This is a very nice building it has a science museum in it and also has a really nice view of Akita from the 14th floor. I would recommend a trip up there and the restaurant is nice all you can eat buffett for about 980 yen you can`t go wrong.

Yoshinobu`s castle is a must see I dont have any pictures at this time but I will put some up later.

It is very famous and he was a famous daimo(lord

of the Edo period.

The Dutch came to Akita during this period and there is a form of art called Akita Ranga this is a must see.

Getting to Oga, The best way is to get the train from Akita Station, Oga has a number of nice places to see

and you must try the ice cream from the oba chans the old women in Japan. Its about 200 yen but well worth

it its more like homemade ice cream. Very nice.

Oba also has a very nice hill or mount that you can go up this has very nice views of the Akita Prefecture.

There is also a museum to the travel of the north pole this was quite cool I have been there before in my blog there are a number of pictures of the times I have been to Akita. I have added some pictures of earlier visits

to Akita, It has a few nice things for the kids and you can take a simulation trip in a ice car and also see some of the ships and things they used in there explorations of the north pole. There are also a number of Arctic stamps from different countries.

chokaisan or Akita Fuji is the tallest mount in Akita, and I think in northern Japan, This is a very nice trip around some of Akita`s famous countryside, I would really recommend it, you can get either the bus or the train there I would recommend a guided trip. They have a cable car for the lazy to get up the mountain and you can walk down.

Food

Everywhere in Japan says I have the best this and the best that. Akita is very famous for rice and a stew called kiritanmpo. Akita is so famous for rice that the shinkansen to Akita is called Komachi which means rice.

Girls

Akita is also famous for its beautiful girls called akita bidjin or beauty`s they are a must see I would recommed Akita girls :)