[Yamagata, Okitama] Pottery Experience in a Private Bath?! A Unique Pottery Experience with a View of the Stunning 'Shirakawa Lake's Submerged Forest'!

Pottery experience inside the bath with a superb view.

The Yamagata Arcadia Tourism Bureau (Yamagata Prefecture) will hold the "Arcadia Pottery Retreat 3rd Edition | Hot Spring Pottery with a View of the Submerged Forest" on Saturday, April 4, 2026, in cooperation with "Iide Shirakawa-so" in the Nakatsugawa district of Iide Town, Yamagata Prefecture. This program allows participants to experience pottery making inside a private bath equipped with an electric potter's wheel.

In this plan, participants will enjoy and meditate while walking with a guide through the stunning **"Shirakawa Lake's Submerged Forest,"** which appears only for a limited period in early spring. Afterward, they will create pottery in a bath surrounded by hot spring steam while gazing at the "Shirakawa Lake's Submerged Forest." Finally, they can soak in the afterglow with a private bath, offering a special retreat experience that seamlessly combines walking, pottery making, and bathing.

What is Arcadia Pottery Retreat?

The Okitama region of Yamagata Prefecture. In the Meiji era, British travel writer Isabella Bird, who traveled this land, described it as "Arcadia (a paradise) of the Orient."

Here, time flows gently, unlike in the cities. Life is lived in harmony with nature, following the changing seasons. A quiet and rich "time" and "scenery" still breathe here.

In spring, surrounded by the babbling of melting snow. In summer, listening to the rustling leaves in the shade amidst the sound of waterfalls and cool breezes. In autumn, gazing at a sea of clouds from a mountaintop surrounded by ripening fields and autumn leaves. In winter, feeling the warmth of your hands and the softness of clay in the silent snow.

The "Arcadia Pottery Retreat" is an experience program where you bring a "potter's wheel and clay" into such scenery and immerse yourself solely in "facing the earth.".

Listen to the sound of the wind, the chirping of birds, the babbling of the river. Simply be in nature, entrust your heart to the rotation of the wheel, face the clay, and quietly face yourself. It may be a time to free your mind and rediscover yourself.

This "healing journey" is born from the encounter between the nature of this land and the time for pottery. The "Arcadia Pottery Retreat" delivers such a unique experience.

First Edition Held: Sangai-taki Pottery Retreat

Second Edition Held: Iide Shirakawa-so Pottery Retreat