YAMAGATA, JAPAN

08/OCT/2001

[Yamagata JR Station: (bigger one)]

Quite big station with a decent hotel.

[Yamagata JR Station 2: (bigger one)]

Yamagata people have a good taste for art. Indeed, around this time of the year they have `The International Documentary Film Festival', which is said to be the one and the only film festival around the world that specialises in documentary films.

[Saiseikan: (bigger one)]

Saiseikan is a famous hospital with a long history. The old building is now used as a local museum (see below).

[Soba-ya]

Yamagata is famous for its soba tradition. Soba is a kind of Japanese noodles, along with udon, somen, ramen, etc. There are loads of soba restaurants in the city.

[Old Prefectural Office: bigger one]

This is the Old Prefectural Office which was built about 85 years ago. Taken from the top of a parking building.

[Yamagata University]

Beautiful campus.

[Kozen-ji: bigger one]

Kozen-ji is the temple where the three generations of the Mogami family that reigned this region before the Edo period are buried. Very serene temple.

[Kozen-ji 2: bigger one]

Bell.

[Momiji Park: bigger one; in sepia]

Momiji (maple) Park. Must be very beautiful in the late autumn, when the leaves turn red and yellow.

[Sensyo-ji: bigger one]

Another temple.

[Kasumi Castle Park]

Kasumi Castle is where the Mogami feudal lord (see above) stayed. Now the castle is being rebuilt as a tourist attraction (not for fighting against the central government, I suppose).

There's a city museum called Yamagata Art Gallery nearby. It has a good collection of modern French arts like Rodin, Monet, Renoir along with Japanese arts.

[Kasumi Castle Park 2: bigger one]

The statue of Yoshimitsu Mogami, under whose reign the city thrived 400 years ago.

[The Old Saiseikan: bigger one]

After the Meiji Revolution in the late 19 century, the Western civilisation flew into all over Japan. The Saiseikan hospital was one of the results of such `enlightenment'. A famous German doctor named Rorentz came here to teach the contemporary Western medicine. Now the building is used as a museum for the local history from the 19th onwards.

EXIT