Things to do in Fukushima
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Fukushima
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Deep winter: skiing at Alts Bandai, Nekoma and Inawashiro, swans on Lake Inawashiro, Ouchijuku under snow, Skyline closed.
Late ski season and plum blossom; memorial events mark the 11 March disaster anniversary.
Cherry blossom: Hanamiyama peaks mid to late April, Tsuruga Castle park in mid April, Skyline usually reopens mid April.
Fresh green in Urabandai and the Goshikinuma trail fully open; Golden Week crowds in the first week.
Rainy season in June, then summer; cherries in June to July and peaches from July on the Fruit Line.
Peak basin heat, peach season at its peak, pears from late August, Inawashiro beaches busy and Obon crowds mid month.
Aizu Festival in late September; pears and grapes on the Fruit Line; typhoon season can disrupt travel.
Best window: Goshikinuma and Skyline foliage mid to late October, apples at the orchards, brewing starts, Skyline closes mid November.
What's on
- Aizu Painted Candle Festival early February
Thousands of hand painted candles are lit around the castle town of Aizu-Wakamatsu.
- Hanamiyama Cherry Blossom Season mid to late April
The farmers' flowering hills above Fukushima City peak, with shuttle buses from Fukushima Station.
- Fukushima Waraji Matsuri first Friday to Sunday in August
A 12 metre, two ton straw sandal is paraded through Fukushima City for healthy legs and safe travel.
- Aizu Festival Usually three days in late September, with the main procession on the middle day
About 500 participants in period dress parade from Tsuruga Castle in the Aizu Hanko Gyoretsu procession.
Best things to do in Fukushima
Hanamiyama Park
Farmers planted these flowering hills, and in mid April cherry, peach and forsythia layer against the Azuma mountains.
Iizaka Onsen
An old hot spring town 25 minutes from the station, with ryokan, foot baths and cheap public baths of very hot water.
Tsuruga Castle
Aizu's red tiled castle keep, unique in Japan, holding a solid museum of the domain and the Boshin War of 1868.
Aizu Bukeyashiki
A reconstructed samurai estate around the chief retainer's residence, showing how a high ranking household lived.
Aizu Sazaedo
A hexagonal hall from 1796 with a double helix ramp, so you climb and descend without ever meeting on the stairs.
Mt. Iimoriyama
The hill of the nineteen Byakkotai graves, a quiet memorial with a wide view over the city and the castle.
Suehiro Sake Brewery Kaeigura
Aizu's most visitable sake brewery, founded in 1850, with free tours of the historic brew house and free tastings.
Homare Sake Brewery
Aizu Homare in Kitakata offers brewery tours, a large Japanese garden and tastings of more than ten products.
Where to stay in Fukushima
Fukushima City and Iizaka Onsen
arrival, Hanamiyama, fruit, Skyline and the Futaba museum day
The shinkansen arrival base; sleep in the city for trains or in Iizaka, 25 minutes out, for an onsen town stay.
Aizu-Wakamatsu
castle town sightseeing, sake, Ouchijuku, Kitakata and Urabandai excursions
The sightseeing base, with Higashiyama and Ashinomaki onsen quarters for ryokan nights and station hotels for value.
Think twice about
- Difficult-to-Return Zone near Fukushima Daiichi
Entry is legally restricted to permit holders in the zone closest to the plant, covering most of Futaba and Okuma and parts of Namie, Tomioka, Katsurao and Iitate. No pick is there.
Best restaurants in Fukushima
Cuisine Inn Tagoto
Aizu's splurge meal, a small cuisine inn serving seasonal kaiseki and wappa meshi in the castle town, book ahead.
Takino
The classic address for wappa meshi, steamed rice and toppings in a bentwood box, with good soba alongside.
Mitsutaya
A storied Aizu institution for sauce katsudon and hearth cooked dengaku miso dishes, a definitive local lunch.
Misawaya
Ouchijuku's famous negi soba house, where a whole raw leek serves as your chopstick and you nibble it as you eat.
Bannai Shokudo
Kitakata's pilgrimage ramen shop, flat curly noodles in clear pork soy broth, served from breakfast time.
Gyoza Terui
Home of enban gyoza since 1953, twenty small gyoza fried into one crisp round disc at the station east exit.
Outdoor things to do in Fukushima
Bandai-Azuma Skyline
A free volcanic mountain road climbing to the Jododaira plateau, open mid April to mid November, best for October colour.
Mount Azuma-Kofuji
A short steep climb from Jododaira up and around a clean crater rim, with the whole Fukushima basin spread below.
Goshikinuma Ponds
A flat trail through ponds left by Bandai's 1888 eruption, each a different shade of emerald, cobalt or turquoise.
Mount Bandai
The prefecture's signature volcano, climbed from Happodai in about four hours for views of lake and pond district.
Lake Inawashiro
Japan's fourth largest lake under Mt. Bandai, with summer beaches and boat hire and wintering swans in winter.
Ouchijuku
A preserved Edo post town of thatched houses on one unpaved street, the essential day trip south from Aizu.
Best hotels in Fukushima
Surikamitei Ohtori
The honest top of market in Iizaka, a long established ryokan known for riverside baths and kaiseki dinners.
Richmond Hotel Fukushima Ekimae
The reliable mid range city base by Fukushima Station, with larger rooms, good breakfast and foreign guest savvy staff.
Hotel Sankyo Fukushima
A clean, simple budget business hotel near the station that keeps a Fukushima City night genuinely cheap.
Ookawaso
Aizu's famous ryokan, built around a floating stage lobby with terraced open air baths above the Okawa River gorge.
Aizuwakamatsu Washington Hotel
The practical mid range hotel by Aizu-Wakamatsu Station, with restaurant, bar, parking and loop bus access.
Ekimae Fuji Grand Hotel
A simple budget hotel by the station with free parking and a restaurant, a sound base for excursion days.
Is Fukushima expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | ¥11,000 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | ¥22,000 a person |
| Splurge | ¥45,000 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Marusei Orchard: a few days ahead
- Cuisine Inn Tagoto: a few days ahead
- Surikamitei Ohtori: weeks ahead
- Ookawaso: weeks ahead
- Book Ookawaso and Surikamitei Ohtori on blossom, foliage and festival weekends, Tagoto for dinner, and fruit picking in peach season.
- At Hanamiyama in peak week, start early and expect shuttle bus queues from Fukushima Station.
Is Fukushima safe?
- Never enter a closed road or restricted area around the Difficult-to-Return Zone for photographs; obey every sign and barrier.
- Official monitoring publishes air dose rates continuously, and the open tourism areas record levels in ordinary background range.
- In the Bandai mountains register hikes and carry bear bells; at Iizaka the source water is famously hot, so mix and test first.
Fukushima travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Do not try Fukushima City, Aizu and Urabandai as one day from Tokyo, and do not drive the Skyline without checking its daily status.
- Do not treat the reopened coastal towns as a casual detour: go to Futaba for the memorial museum, with time and respect, or do not go.
Getting around Fukushima: public transport and more
- A car matters here: the Skyline, Goshikinuma, Urabandai, Lake Inawashiro and the Futaba museum day are far easier by car.
- Fukushima City to Aizu-Wakamatsu is about 90 minutes by train via Koriyama, and roughly 100 km by road; split the trip between the two bases.
- Carry an international driving permit to rent, and insist on snow tyres in winter.
Who Fukushima suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Fukushima your trip
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