Discover Japan’s best kept secret: Bandai-Asahi National Park

21.07.2023 - 07:45 / roughguides.com

Inviting adventure and exploration, Bandai-Asahi National Park in Japan’s north-eastern region of Tohoku is an exhilaratingly wild land of still mountains and forests. It’s home to peacock-blue caldera lakes and wooded crests, silhouetted against a pandemonium of breathtaking skies. Spanning over 186,000 ha (1,860 sq. km) and stretching across three prefectures – Fukushima, Yamagata and Niigata – it is, in area, the second largest national park in Japan.

Resolute hikers are met with equally resolute winds atop its three sacred peaks: Mount Haguro, Mount Gassan and Mount Yudono (Dewa Sanzan, collectively). The three mountain giants inhabit the northern reaches of the park in the ancient province of Dewa (now Yamagata Prefecture). Mount Gassan is the highest, with Midagahara, a singularly spectacular lava plateau of rich wetland habitat strewn with rustling reeds and moisture-loving alpine plants, occupying its north face.

Occupying the park’s southwest is the Iide mountain range — a wildlife-rich habitat that gives way to sky-blue iiderindo flowers and lichen-carpeted trails winding through a primeval beech forest.

Its southeasternmost swathe (or Bandaiazuma-Inawashiro area) meanwhile is characterised by steaming onsen and cobalt calderas rippling in restless winds. They recur like footprints left by giants across a vast expanse of sand-coloured terrain. This unique landscape is the masterwork of volcanoes: Mount Bandai (the park’s namesake) and Mount Azuma.

In 1888, this majestic mountain collapsed in a blast of steam, blocking and redirecting the Nagase River and its tributaries. An assemblage of ponds and lakes, varying in colour from aquamarine to copper, now adorn its foothills, an area now known as the Goshikinuma (‘five coloured’) Ponds.

Urabandai Lake Resort ©

Offering year-round interest, the park during the spring and summer months (April to September) is an adventure playground for hikers, pilgrims and water sports enthusiasts, the densely forested slopes offering respite from the sun

From mid-September through October and November, when russet leaves usher in the months of autumn, temperatures remain relatively cool, conducive to rambling the three sacred peaks and exploring the colourful craters.

In the cold season (December to February), the park becomes a snow globe of activity, with skiers whooshing down the slopes, snowboarders performing tricks in mid-air, sleds slipping through the forests and fishermen waiting patiently for signs of life beneath the ice.

Boot up and journey into this enigmatic park with us to discover its best bits (as recommended by locals).

Thomas Siebert©

Off the beaten track not far from the centre of Inawashiro Town is Inawashiro Ski Resort (or Inawashiro Snow