Japan: The Northern Alps #4

19/6 Day 4: Toyama City


It was a pretty dreary and wet day in Toyama, so there wasn't much to see. We took a short walk to Toyama castle, but the castle was undergoing renovations, plus the building wasn't much to look at :/ With only a few hours to burn before taking the local train back to Nagano, we decided to follow the walking route printed on the tourist pamphlet.


The only location of interest that was within Toyama City itself was a street of old, pre-war houses that were owned by influential merchant families back then. Being a weekday, plus the gloomy weather, the street was totally deserted, save for a few shops that gladly welcomed us.

Took shelter from the rain and bought dorayaki!

There was a particular house that belonged to a well-known merchant family (Mori, if I remember correctly) and we entered it, expecting to see a couple of exhibits here and there. Little did I know, the elderly couple tending to the house offered to give us a guided tour!

The oji-san spoke mostly in Japanese, but I could understand most of it, and he threw in some English as well for the benefit of my mum and dad. He was really enthusiastic about showing us around the house (perhaps we were the only visitors that day). When we told him we were from Singapore, he looked really surprised and told us, "Very far!"

Preserved and refurbished houses

I learnt a lot about Japanese-style architecture that day - he pointed out many details about the house that would have skipped my notice - the arrangement of the wooden floorboards, the intricate patterns of the pine wood ceiling, the design of the garden etc.

There was an elementary school nearby :D

We continued walking through the street until we reached the port, which was pretty deserted. It was about lunchtime, so we looked around for an eating place and found this expensive looking restaurant. Being the only eatery we could find, we decided to just eat there. It specialised in Shiro-ebi, which translates to "white shrimp", the local Toyama speciality seafood. I ordered a kakiage don, and it came with a huge deep fried patty of shrimp!

Awesome graffiti at the Toyama port

Shiro-ebi kakiage don

Modern electric tram

We took the tram back to the hotel, where we checked out and headed to Toyama station for our 4-hour long train ride back to Nagano. I took the opportunity to study for my JLPT N4 test, which I just took last week (and passed, hopefully! ><)

The landscape changed from cities, to farm fields, to mountains, to the Sea of Japan, to small little towns in the middle of nowhere. Students came and went as the train passed by their schools and hometowns, reminding me of my own journey home from school with my buddies.

We arrived in Nagano just in time for dinner, which was a hearty hot-pot of pork and chicken (and whatever innards the chef could throw into the pot). The waiter was a funny chap - he used his iPhone to translate whatever he wanted to tell us into English. The result? Well, I suppose you know how well Google translate works XD

The next day, we headed to Karuizawa on the way back to Tokyo.