Toyama (prefecture)

Toyama prefecture (富山県 Toyama-ken) is in the central Chubu region of the main Japanese island Honshu.

Cities

• Oyabe
• Toyama - the prefectural capital
• Takaoka - beautiful city-by-the-sea and home to the Takaoka Great Buddha Statue (高岡大仏 Takaoka Daibutsu)

Other destinations

• Gokayama — World Heritage Site famous for its gassho-zukuri houses
• Kurobe Gorge - Notable for having a unique truck train that goes about half way up the gorge, but also for great hiking and hot springs. Access from Unazuki Onsen station.
• Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route - A remote link between Nagano and Toyama through a string of several unique forms of transportation constructed to give access to Kurobe dam. Access from Tateyama station (near Toyama) or Shinano-Omachi near Matsumoto.

Get in

By plane

Tiny Toyama Airport in Toyama has flights from Tokyo, Sapporo, Seoul and Taipei.

By train

Toyama is connected to Tokyo (2 hrs) and Kanazawa (30 min) by the Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train line. There are stations at Toyama, Takaoka and Unazuki Onsen.

See

Suganuma Village

• Oyabe - a traditional field festival, onsen spot
• Namerikawa - water skiing and hang-gliding, scenic views
• Himi - secluded seaside fishing village with excellent fish market
• Gokayama - deep in the mountains near the border with Gifu, has a couple of well-preserved gassho-style thatched-houses villages

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