In a quiet corner of Akita prefecture, near the town of Takanosu in the north of Japan's main island, a set of stone circles lies on a low terrace above the Yoneshiro river. The Isedotai stone circles were built around four thousand years ago by the people of the Jomon culture, hunter-gatherers who lived in the Japanese archipelago for more than ten thousand years and made some of the oldest pottery in the world. The site is part of the Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan, listed by UNESCO in 2021, a series of seventeen sites across Hokkaido and the north of Honshu that illustrate the long, settled life of these people.
The circles are made of river stones, carefully arranged in rings and patterns, and they were probably used for rituals and burials. The site was found in the 1990s during the construction of an airport access road, and the road was rerouted to protect it. A small museum beside the circles displays pottery, clay figures and other finds from the excavations, and helps you picture the people who gathered here.
The riding in this part of Akita is gentle and scenic, with roads following the river valleys through rice fields, forests and small villages, with mountains rising on all sides. Traffic is light, and the roads are well surfaced and well signposted, though often narrow. To the north west lies the Shirakami-Sanchi, a vast beech forest straddling the border with Aomori, listed by UNESCO for its untouched woodland. To the east, the mountains of the Ou range offer winding roads and hot springs.
Takanosu, a town of around twenty thousand people, has fuel, shops and restaurants, and the larger city of Odate is about twenty kilometres away. Odate is the home of the Akita dog, the breed of the famous loyal dog HachikÅ, who was born near here. The local food includes kiritanpo, rice pounded and grilled on skewers, then cooked in a hot pot with chicken and vegetables. Winters in Akita are long and snowy, making riding impossible for several months, but summer and autumn are beautiful, with green rice fields giving way to golden harvests and blazing autumn colours.