Misawa, Aomori

Planes take off from a runway shared by the U.S. Air Force, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, and civilian carriers — an arrangement found nowhere else in Japan. That fact alone tells you something about Misawa. The city in eastern Aomori has lived alongside American military personnel and their families for decades, long enough that the coexistence has settled into ordinary weekday life rather than remaining a novelty.

Yet the same ground holds quieter histories. Sabishiro Beach, where pine trees line a stretch of Pacific coastline, was the departure point for the Miss Veedol's nonstop transpacific flight in 1931. The Terayama Shuji Memorial Museum preserves the manuscripts and stage sets of the poet and playwright who grew up here, including reconstructed theatrical environments that have no obvious precedent in Japanese museum practice. These two inheritances — aviation ambition and avant-garde art — sit side by side without apparent contradiction.

The lake called Ogawarako, a brackish body of water registered under the Ramsar Convention, yields large harvests of Yamato shijimi clams each year. Hokki clams and wakasagi come in through Misawa fishing port. Inland, long yam, burdock, and garlic grow in the agricultural belt. The Fushimanuma wetland, also Ramsar-listed, supports a breeding colony of Marsh Grassbirds. Festivals punctuate the calendar — American Day, the Misawa Tanabata celebration, the port festival in late August — each one reflecting a different layer of what the city actually is: fishing town, farming district, air base, literary birthplace, all at once.