Nasushiobara, Mountain resort city in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan
Nasushiobara is a city in northern Tochigi Prefecture that spreads across mountainous terrain near the Fukushima border. The landscape rises from valleys with rice fields to forested slopes, where smaller districts sit scattered between the hills.
The area remained largely uninhabited until the Edo Period, when irrigation projects began to make the dry land usable. During the Meiji era, farmers from other regions arrived and transformed the fields into pasture for dairy cattle.
The name derives from the region's hot springs, which have drawn travelers for centuries and remain active in many traditional bathhouses today. Local dairy products appear in markets and small shops, where visitors can see the rural side of Japanese food production.
The train station sits on the Tohoku Shinkansen line and offers direct connections to Tokyo and further north. National highways run through the city and allow drives to the mountain resorts or into the countryside.
Many visitors do not realize that the hot springs come from volcanic activity beneath the mountains and enrich the water with natural minerals. In winter, some streets turn into narrow corridors between high snow walls that residents must clear regularly.
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