is a quasi-national park in the Shimokita Peninsula of

Aomori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori (city), Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is border ...

in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

of far northern

Honshū , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is rated a protected landscape (category V) according to the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

. The park, consists of several discontinuous locations, which include: * the volcanic peaks and caldera lakes of the Osorezan Mountain Range and surrounding forests. * Yagen Valley, with its

hot springs A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

* the coastal rock formations of Hotokegaura on the west coast of Shimokita Peninsula * Cape Ōma, the northernmost point of Honshū * Cape Shiriya, the northeasternmost point Honshū and the Sarugamori Sand Dunes * Taijima, an island off the coast of Wakinosawa The park also encompasses a portion of the natural habitat of the

Japanese macaque The Japanese macaque (''Macaca fuscata''), also known as the snow monkey, is a terrestrial Old World monkey species that is native to Japan. Colloquially, they are referred to as "snow monkeys" because some live in areas where snow covers the g ...

. The mountainous interior is forested with Siebold's beech and Nootka cypress, and coastal areas have stands of

tilia ''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperateness, temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Great Bri ...

and

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

. The area was designated a quasi-national park on July 22, 1968. The borders of the park span the

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of Mutsu,

Higashidōri is a List of villages in Japan, village located in Aomori Prefecture, Aomori, Japan. , the village had an estimated population of 5,913 in 2829 households, and a population density of 20 persons per km2. Its total area is . Geography Higashid� ...

, Sai, and Ōma. Like all Quasi-National Parks in Japan, Shimokita Hantō Quasi-National Park is managed by the local prefectural government.

Gallery

Osorezan.jpg 寒立馬.jpg

References

*Southerland, Mary and Britton, Dorothy. ''The National Parks of Japan''. Kodansha International (1995).

External links

*
Maps of Shimokita Hantō Quasi-National Park
National parks of Japan Protected areas established in 1968 1968 establishments in Japan Parks and gardens in Aomori Prefecture Mutsu, Aomori Higashidōri, Aomori Sai, Aomori Ōma {{Japan-protected-area-stub

Gallery

See also

References

External links