Travel Guide: Gujo Hachiman

Gujo Hachiman is a small, riverside town in Gifu Prefecture, known for its pristine waterways and its distinctive summer dance festival. The town was founded in the 16th century following the construction of Hachiman Castle.
Gujo's waterways function in much the same capacity as they did in the 1600s. Walking through town provides visitors with a look at the many canals, fountains and waterways that are still used for washing rice, vegetables and laundry. Townspeople cooperate to keep the canals clean and the water fresh; as a result of their efforts, Gujo's drinking water is a source of local pride.

Gujo Odori is the name of the large summer dance festival held in Gujo Hachiman. The festival started over 400 years ago and continues today for a period of thirty-one festival nights between July and September. During the four days of Obon in mid August, dances continue all through the night.

Gujo is also a leading producer of food replicas in Japan. Many of the food replicas, used by restaurants to decorate their windows and inform patrons of their dishes, are produced here. Visitors can try their hand at creating wax shrimp tempura in some of the workshops.

Kirishima Travel Guide

Kirishima is an active volcanic mountain range that lies on the border between Miyazaki and Kagoshima Prefectures. It is made up of mountains, highlands, volcanic lakes and hot springs and offers good hiking through beautiful mountainous surroundings. Although geographically separate, Kirishima and Yakushima Island make up the Kirishima-Yaku National Park, one of Japan's oldest national parks.The mountains of Kirishima play an important role in Japanese mythology. They are said to be the site where the god Ninigi no Mikoto, grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu, was sent to rule over the earth and establish the lineage of Japanese Emperors. At the top of Mount Takachiho-no-mine you can see the spear sunk in the mountaintop, which Ninigi no Mikoto used to descend to earth.

Ebino Kogen and Kirishima Onsen are the two most prominent resort towns in the Kirishima area. Ebino Kogen on the Miyazaki side of the border, is a small village with a couple of hotels in a highland area surrounded by mountains and volcanic lakes. On the Kagoshima side is Kirishima Onsen, a more developed hot spring town with good baths and nice views over Kagoshima Prefecture.

Okuribito Filming Locations

Okuribito is a Japanese movie about the profession of nokanshi (encoffineer), who prepare deceased bodies for funeral ceremonies. Known as "Departures" in English, the movie won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009.
Okuribito contains many scenes of rural Japan and natural beauty which probably made some viewers wonder where in Japan the movie had been filmed. The following article will answer this question.

The main location of outdoor scenes was the city of Sakata and surroundings in the Shonai Region of Yamagata Prefecture in northern Japan. Located along the Sea of Japan coast, the Shonai Region has no shinkansen connection and is hardly visited by foreign tourists, except for a few heading to the Dewa Sanzan mountains.

The unique building, which housed the encoffineer's company office, is the most prominent of several filming locations in the city center of Sakata. Several street scenes were taken there, as well. And the concert hall, where the orchestra plays in the beginning of the movie, stands directly next to Sakata's city hall.
Probably the most memorable outdoor scenes were those of the wide fields with a river and a snow covered mountain in the background. The mountain is Mount Chokaizan and the river is Gakko River. Most of the scenes were taken around the old Asahi Bridge just outside the town center of Yusa, ten kilometers north of Sakata.
The bath house Tsurunoyu, also repeatedly featured in the movie, is an actual public bath house in Tsuruoka City, 25 kilometers south of Sakata. Like in the film, the bath is run by an elderly lady. Enjoying the sudden increase in interest in her bath house, the lady postponed her plans to close the place down for good.
In between Tsuruoka and Sakata stands the home in which the movie's first scene takes place, and which also appears on the movie's Japanese poster. The house was designed by an architect, who also worked on imperial villas, and is now open to the public as cultural exchange facility.
Only a few of the outdoor scenes were filmed outside of the Shonai Region. Most prominently among them are the scenes of the outside of the main character's home. The interesting building stands a two hour car drive southeast of Sakata in Kaminoyama City, just south of the prefectural capital of Yamagata City.