Sakata
Now I live in Sakata City, facing Japan Sea.
The population is about 112,000. This isn’t a big city but it has a long history. We have some historical festivals and there are some old buildings as sightseeing points. Sakata has a big port. In Edo era, rice and other agricultural crops were shipped to Osaka. Now the port is still a big one.
Shonai Heiya (Shonai Plain), including Sakata, is a vast rice granary area, so Sakata is famous for Sushi.
We have two ports. Sakata Port is a fishing port, and Sakata North Port is a large international, commercial and industrial port.
Sankyo-Souko is a range of old warehouses for rice. These are all active warehouses.
Sakata is surrounded by vast rice fields.
Chokai-zan(Mt.Chokai) is always watching down on us. It’s called “Dewa-Fuji”, because Mt.Chokai is an independent peak like Mt.Fuji. (”Dewa” is an ancient name of Yamagata and Akita Pref.)
“Sakata Matsuri (Sakata Festival)” in May is the largest one. This festival is dedicated to old “Hie-Jinja”. (”Jinja” = Shinto shrine.)
Shonai Airport is an commuter airport in the suburb of Sakata. Only 4 flights a day, and all of them are bound for Haneda(Tokyo). Every aircraft can monopolize the airport.
Mogami-gawa(Mogami River) is the largest river in Yamagata Pref, and Sakata is located in the river mouth of Mogami-gawa. Numerous swans and ducks come from Siberia and stay here during winter.
Sakata is a city of wind. Strong wind from Japan Sea blows all year round. So you can see many propellers of the wind-generated electricity.
1月 7th, 2010 at 07:33
Greetings – thank you for this well-done piece. Please forgive this, my English is a second language to me. Spanish is my native tongue but I am working on getting down English. Thank you again!