Nishikawa

Nishikawa is a forest town in the middle of Yamagata Prefecture, on the old Rokujuri-goe road that pilgrims walked to Dewa Sanzan. Gassan was the mountain of the past in that pilgrimage, and the villages at its trailheads filled with pilgrim lodgings. Local people fed the ascetics passing through with the wild plants they ate at home, and that is where the town's mountain-vegetable cooking comes from. Gassan is still a place of worship, so keep to the shrine's closures on the upper mountain.

Gassan Ski Area opens in April, when most other ski areas close, and its slopes sit at about 1,600 metres. You can ski into July. The Gassan pair lift runs from 8:00 to 16:30 every day from 10 April to mid-October unless the weather stops it, and guides lead tours from the summit down toward the town in April and May, up to 15 km long with about 1,500 metres of descent.

The Sagae River, which rises on Gassan and the Asahi range, has been ranked Japan's clearest river several times in surveys by the land ministry. Gassan Shizu Onsen shares the Gassan-Shizu area with the ski area, and in late winter its inns hold Yuki-hatago no Akari, an evening of lanterns in the snow.