Tsuruoka and Sakata Driving Tour
The Places Beyond The Cities
Tsuruoka and Sakata are located in the northwest of Japan, along the Sea of Japan in Yamagata Prefecture. Having steadily climbed up the eastern coast from Tokyo to Sendai, this marked the northernmost point of our Japan trip; the point from which we would return south after jumping to the western coast.
The northwest is somewhat more rural and doesn’t have any of the big cities or the accompanying train systems, so it was essential for us to rent a car for a day to go sightseeing in the area.
By this point, we’d already become pretty accustomed to renting a car, stocking up on good drinks and snacks and then heading out exploring.
Our first stop was Gyokusen-ji Temple, a small temple on the outskirts of town near the base of a mountain. The temple was a quaint place where we had to remove our shoes and walk through a building to get to the garden at the rear.
The rear garden was spectacular, mostly because of an enormous weeping sakura tree at the edge of the pond that drew attention wherever we stood. I was particularly excited to get some reflections of the blossoms in the water and even more excited when the petals started floating down at the slightest breeze.
Tsuruoka is the most famous for three nearby sacred mountains, one of which includes Mount Haguro. Mount Haguro is the easiest to access and is the only one of the three with a mountaintop shrine that is open year-round. The other two are closed during the winter because of snow.
Even though it is possible to drive to the top and park at the shrine, the traditional approach is to take a walking trail through a forest. The forest trail starts with a descent to a bridge crossing a river that is partially fed by a waterfall in the cliff face.
The forest trail requires climbing up 2,446 stone steps to reach the top, at 414 meters in elevation. There are numerous mini shrine buildings along the way and we made a point of praying at all of them.
The most interesting part of the forest walk was near the beginning where a large 5-storey pagoda was nestled within the trees. It is majestic and beautiful… an icon of the mountain.
It probably took us an hour to an hour and a half to reach the top, and my hayfever took a toll during our hike. By the time we reached the top, I was ready to get out of dodge.
The building at the summit had a notably thick thatched roof and there was still a large pile of snow nearby. It goes to show how much snow accumulates here during the winter.
After we made it down the mountain, we drove to Sakata to see Tamasudare Waterfall. The waterfall was a large cascade of whitewater over a cliff into a rocky pool that created a steady stream of mist so dense that we couldn’t get photos near the base without getting covered in water.
We also visited Maruike-sama, which is a point of interest according to the Sakata Tourism office. It ended up being a small, clear-blue pond in a forest. There was a fence around it, so we weren’t able to get a close look.
The nearby coast had a place where a priest commissioned 16 stone statues of Arhats to be carved into the shore rock. We were able to find 16, but when we left we found a sign showing that there are actually 32 — another 16 having been added later.
Our last stop was to see some more sakura in Hiyoriyama Park. It was pretty late in the day but there were still people out having picnics — and that made us eager to get home for dinner. This last stop rounded out a great driving tour.
