Toyama City

Toyama is a city on Toyama Bay, facing the Sea of Japan on Honshu's central coast. The bay is known for its firefly squid (hotaru-ika), which glow blue in the water between March and June and are a local delicacy, served raw, boiled or as tempura. The Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route, a mountain crossing using cable cars, ropeways and buses through the northern Japan Alps, is accessible as a full-day trip from the city. Toyama Castle, a reconstructed 16th-century keep surrounded by a moat and park, sits in the city centre. The Toyama Glass Art Museum, designed by Kengo Kuma with stacked timber beams, is architecturally interesting and free to enter on the lower floors. The Kurobe Gorge Railway, a small trolley train that winds through a narrow mountain valley, runs from April to November. Local pharmacies sell traditional Chinese medicine, for which Toyama has been a production centre since the Edo period.