No upcoming voyage currently calls at Akita
NYK Cruises publish new voyages a few times a year. Tell us when you would like to sail and we will write to you when a call here is scheduled.
About Akita
A castle town and rice country, with the heaviest snow of any prefectural capital on this coast and a summer festival that answers it. Akita is also where the dog comes from, and where the rice for a good deal of Japanese sake is grown. The port at Akita is a short ride from the centre.
Within reach of the port
The Kanto festival
Held 3 to 6 August. Long bamboo poles hung with dozens of paper lanterns are balanced on a palm, a forehead, a hip — the whole thing read as an ear of rice, and the festival as a prayer for the harvest. It is an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, and one of the three great festivals of the north-east.
Akita Kanto Festival (official) ↗in Japanese — your browser can translate it
Senshu Park
The site of the Satake clan's castle in the middle of the city, and one of the hundred best cherry sites in Japan. The earthworks and moats are the castle now; the gate has been rebuilt.
Akita City (official) ↗in Japanese — your browser can translate it
Namahage, on the peninsula
An hour west at Oga, men in straw and demon masks go house to house on New Year's Eve to frighten the idle. A museum on the peninsula performs it year round, which is the only way to see it outside 31 December.
Shore excursions
NYK Cruises run their own guided excursions at each port, booked by guests themselves through My ASUKA PLANS — the booking window opens before departure and depends on your cabin class. They are conducted in Japanese. Going ashore independently is always an option.