Toyama

Toyama is a bayside capital on the Sea of Japan coast of central Honshu, backed by the 3,000-meter wall of the Tateyama mountains. The bay drops so deep so fast that its seafood is a national byword, and the city has quietly rebuilt itself around glass art and clean trams.

Firefly squid glow along the shores each spring, and white shrimp sweet enough to eat raw come up in the nets; the sushi counters rival far more famous cities. The Kengo Kuma-designed Glass Art Museum crowns the city's glass tradition, and the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route begins in the prefecture's mountains.

In Gokayama, UNESCO-listed thatched villages doze in steep valleys south of the plain, quieter cousins of Shirakawa-go. The Hokuriku Shinkansen puts Toyama on the Tokyo-Kanazawa line, and trams glide between the station and the bay. Spring means firefly squid season; autumn colors the alpine route.