Experience the best of Tsuruoka

Tsuruoka lies on the Shonai plain in western Yamagata Prefecture, a broad rice-growing delta between the Sea of Japan and the Dewa mountains. The grounds of the old castle form a park with a shrine and a museum of the Shonai domain, and the former samurai quarter lies close by. UNESCO named Tsuruoka a Creative City of Gastronomy in 2014.

Inland, the Dewa Sanzan, the sacred peaks of Haguro, Gassan and Yudono, are a centre of Shugendo mountain asceticism, and yamabushi priests still practise there. At Haguro, a path of more than two thousand stone steps climbs through ancient cedar forest to a large thatched shrine hall. On the coast, the Kamo Aquarium keeps one of the largest jellyfish collections in the world.

Shojin ryori, the vegetarian meals served at pilgrims' lodgings on the mountains, are a speciality, as are dadachamame, a sweet local soybean, cod miso soup and the rice of the Shonai plain. Winters bring deep snow and wind off the sea, and the pilgrim season for the mountains runs through the warmer months.