The Toyama City area and Yatsuo are home to tourist attractions such as Hie Shrine, Windy, and Five Hundred Arhats, tourist events such as Owara Kaze no Bon Festival, Toyama Festival, and Mizuhashi Bridge Festival, and local delicacies such as buri daikon, kaisendon, and Toyama black.
Yatsuo in Toyama Prefecture is nationally famous for the graceful festival "Owara Kaze no Bon Festival," but the town is also full of other attractions such as the Yatsuo Owara Museum, Ecchu Yatsuo Hikiyama Festival, Kongodo Mountain, Koinami skunk cabbage, 100 best roads in Japan, illuminated stone walls, thousand cherry trees in the middle of the island, and Tenjiku.
Since the 210th day counting from Risshun (the first day of spring) has been regarded as a bad day for typhoons, the Owara Kaze no Bon Festival, an event to pray for the prevention of wind disasters, is held every year from August 20, with the date set for each region.
Every year around this time, tourists from within and outside of the prefecture come to see the elegant Owara Kaze no Bon Festival, making it difficult to make reservations for lodging.
The Yatsuo Owara Museum has a video exhibition room where visitors are led into the Owara space by the sound of wind, water, and the atmosphere of the town to simulate the Owara Kaze no Bon Festival, and an exhibition room on the first floor where the historical background of the Owara and materials related to Junji Kawasaki, who fostered the Owara, are displayed.
The second-floor reference exhibition room displays and explains important Owara materials such as Owara lyrics and dances. If you were unable to see the Owara Kaze no Bon Festival, you should take a peek.
The Ecchu Yatsuo Hikiyama Festival is held every year on May 3. This festival symbolizes the culture of the Etchu townspeople, who prospered as the gozonjo of the Toyama Clan, and has been handed down for a long time until the present day.
Six gorgeous floats led by lion dancers are pulled by young men dressed in happi coats and paraded through the streets as if they were historical picture scrolls. At night, the floats are lit by more than 1,000 lanterns, creating a fantastically beautiful scene that is different from the one during the daytime.
The Toyama City Museum of Glass Art is a public art museum that exhibits contemporary glass art works by glass artists from Japan and abroad, as well as historical glass artifacts, with a focus on Toyama glass. The Toyama City Museum of Glass Art is located on the 2nd to 6th floors of the Toyama Kirari complex, which consists of a gallery, library, bank, and other facilities. On the sixth floor ...»
Mirage Land in Mira Park Uozu General Park is the only amusement park in Toyama Prefecture and a popular spot for families and children. In particular, the six-seater Giant Ferris Wheel, which rises in the center of the park, is the symbol of Mirage Land and offers a beautiful view of Toyama Bay and the Tateyama Mountain Range. The Giant Ferris Wheel also has a "Miracle Gondola" that looks great...»
This natural hot spring is located at 2,410 meters above sea level, the highest point in Japan, with a spectacular view of Tateyama. It is located in the center of the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. Tateyama's Jigokudani (Hell Valley) has long been considered one of the three most sacred places in Japan, where people of the Tateyama faith worshipped the hydrogen sulfide fumaroles. Mikurigaike Ons...»
This is the only museum in the world that focuses on the ecology and natural environment of the mysterious "firefly squid" of Toyama Bay. The museum introduces the ecology of firefly squid through exhibits and videos. The building is a two-story reinforced concrete structure with a motif of a squid's body. The exterior of the building is made of wood that changes color when wetted by water, and t...»
A very unique ramen with a jet-black soup made with simmered koikuchi shoyu called "Toyama Black Ramen" is known to be created by a ramen shop in Toyama City "Taiki" in 1947. The soup was made quite salty to serve as a "side dish" for workers who brought rice to the ramen shop. The pungent flavor of soup became popular and there has been an increasing number of ramen shops which serve "Black Ramen...»
This is a kind of oshizushi made with masu. It is made with sliced masu which is salted and seasoned, then packed and pressed into a round container lined with bamboo leaves. It is said masu zushi was invented in 1717 with good-quality rice and ayu from Jinzu river. It was sent to Yoshimune, the eighth shogun of Tokugawa by then lord of Kaga, and Yoshimune known as a gourmet was so impressed with ...»
"Shiroebi" is a rare species which inhabits in the depth of 300 to 600m, and can be caught only in Toyama Bay in Japan. Toyama Bay is the only place in the world that can catch plenty of Shiroebi to make enough profits, so Shiroebi is a very valuable foodstaff worldwide. Shiroebi is about 6cm in body length, and it is also known as "a jewel of Toyama Bay" due to the transparent color of light pink...»
Toyama, Tsuruga in Fukuoka Prefecture, and Sakai in Osaka Prefecture are known as the areas where people eat plenty of tororokombu which is thinly shredded kobu. According to the Family Income and Expenditure Servey by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2006, Toyama City has been the biggest consumer of kobu in Japan since 1960. "Kurotororo" is one of the tororokombu which is made by shredd...»