Important: Wikitravel is exploring a license upgrade to CC by-sa 3.0, please give your consent or refusal here.

From Wikitravel

Chūbu (中部) is the central region of Japan's Honshu island.

[edit] Prefectures

The prefectures of the Chubu region are often further divided into three groups.

Tōkai (東海), the southern Pacific coast:

• Aichi - mostly urban sprawl around Nagoya
• Gifu - home to the northern Japan Alps and many hot springs
• Shizuoka - home to the famous Mount Fuji and the scenic Izu Peninsula

Hokuriku (北陸), the northern Sea of Japan coast:

• Fukui
• Ishikawa
• Toyama

Kōshin'etsu (甲信越), the rest:

• Nagano - great skiing locations
• Niigata
• Yamanashi - at the foothills of Mount Fuji

[edit] Cities

Kanazawa's historic Higashi-Chayamachi teahouse district

• Hida-Takayama - attractively preserved town and a good starting point for trips to the Japan Alps
• Kanazawa - stylish historic city
• Nagano - Japan's winter sports capital
• Nagoya - Chubu's largest city by far
• Niigata - Major port city on the northern coast
• Toyama

[edit] Other destinations

• Gero Onsen - one of Japan's Three Famous Hot Springs
• Japan Alps - the largest and tallest mountain chain in Japan
• Mount Fuji - the iconic Japanese mountain
• Oku-Hida Onsen Villages - 5 remote hamlets full of stunning scenery and some of Japan's best hot springs
• Ono - historic castle town in Fukui prefecture
• Sado Island - place of exile home to gold mines and the yearly Earth Celebration
• Sekigahara - the site of the famous battle that ushered in the Tokugawa Shogunate
• Yuzawa - popular ski and hot spring resort, the setting of Yasunari Kawabata's Nobel Prize-winning Snow Country

[edit] Understand

Hot springs in the Oku-Hida Onsen Villages

Chubu means "middle region", accurately reflecting its position straddling the two Japanese poles of Kansai and Kanto. Often ignored by foreign tourists, many of Chubu's best attractions are in the mountains, particularly the Mount Fuji and the Japanese Alps.

[edit] Talk

There are many people who speak in dialect in this area. In Shirone in Niigata prefecture, people speak in a dialect. For example, they use the word "Ra, Ri, Ru, Re and Ro " at the ending. So they speak like this, "～raro!".

[edit] Get in

[edit] By plane

Chubu Centrair International Airport, Japan's third major international gateway, is located on an artificial island 30 minutes south from Nagoya. Most larger cities around the region have airports, but they generally only serve domestic flights.

[edit] By train

True to the name, the Tokaido Shinkansen bisects the southern Tokai region, connecting to Tokyo in the east and Osaka and Kyoto in the west. Access to the northern parts is harder: Nagano can be reached from Tokyo on the Nagano Shinkansen, but the Hokuriku Shinkansen onward to Kanazawa remains under construction.

[edit] Get around

[edit][add listing] See

• In the Oku-Hida region around Takayama, check out the traditional gasshō-zukuri houses, with a roof shaped like hands in prayer to protect against snow from accumulating.

• There are many famous temples in Nagano, notably Zenkōji, considered an official national treasure.

• In Nagoya, there is Nagoya castle, although it's just a modern concrete reconstruction.

• Mount Fuji's view is great.

[edit][add listing] Do

• Winter sports - in the winter, cold, dry air from the Asian continent meets moist Pacific air, the result is a large amount of snow that falls in the Koshin'etsu district, also known as Snow Country (雪国 Yukiguni), since it receives some of the heaviest snowfall in Japan. This makes Chubu Japan's undisputed winter sports capital with attractions like Nagano, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics, and Yuzawa, easily reached from Tokyo.

• Hiking - the Japan Alps have some great hiking. Mount Fuji in Shizuoka is a symbol of Japan and a popular tourist attraction, both for viewing and climbing.

[edit][add listing] Eat

Chubu's regions all have their local specialities. Some include:

• Hotaru ika (lit. "firefly squid") in Toyama

• Tempura shrimp in Nagoya

• Hatchō miso (八丁味噌) in Okazaki

[edit][add listing] Drink

Chubu is sake country and Niigata, renowned for its koshihikari rice, produces some of the best in the country including famous labels like Kubota (久保田), Koshinokanbai (越乃寒梅) and Hakkaisan (八海山).

Shizuoka is famous for green tea and Aichi specializes in, oddly enough, oranges.