The Pleasures of Toyama: Japanese City Recommended by New York Times in 2025

The New York Times has praised Toyama as a place to go to “enjoy cultural wonders and culinary delights while skipping the crowds.”

It cited Toyama Glass Art Museum, designed by world-renowned architect Kuma Kengo, as one such symbol of a “cultural wonder.” The museum was opened by the city in 2015 to mark the culmination of an urban development program aimed at promoting Toyama as a city of glass art. Along with a permanent exhibition featuring Japanese and international contemporary glass artists, there are also occasional special events. The building exterior, with its combination of granite, glass, and aluminum, is evocative of the impressive Tateyama Mountain Range, visible from the city. In contrast to this metallic external appearance, the warm spacious interior has been created with generous use of Toyama-sourced wood. The New York Times complimented it as being “a towering cathedral of timber and light.”

The exterior of Toyama Glass Art Museum. (Courtesy Toyama City Kankō Association)

The interior of Toyama Glass Art Museum. (Courtesy Toyama City Kankō Association)

Visitors who want to do more than just look are recommended to visit the Toyama Glass Studio. They offer a taster lesson where visitors can first learn about glassblowing and then make their own original glass or small vase, all in just one hour.

The glassblowing taster experience at Toyama Glass Studio. (Courtesy Toyama City Kankō Association)

While the New York Times highlights a few hip eateries, Toyama’s most representative fare is seafood, such as buri (yellowtail) and firefly squid. Another is shiroebi glass shrimp, known as the “jewel of Toyama Bay,” but as quantities are scarce, they are best enjoyed locally. These shrimps can be deep-fried in their shells to give a crispy and aromatic taste, perfect for kakiage, a kind of tempura. When peeled and served as sashimi or placed between sheets of konbu to age to make kobujime, they have a unique creamy texture and delicate sweetness.

Shiroebi glass shrimp. (Courtesy Toyama Tourism Organization)

Shiroebi kakiage. (Courtesy Toyama Tourism Organization)

Among the “B gourmet” cheap-yet-classic dishes in the region, Toyama Black, a local ramen, has been gaining popularity. As the name suggests, what makes this dish distinct is its jet-black soup. Each ramen shop offers its own variation and overall, with its thick noodles, chunky pork slices, roughly chopped onions and coarsely ground pepper, the dish has a rugged feel to it. The richly flavored ramen is said to originate from the postwar reconstruction period, created for the hardworking laborers in central Toyama to provide them with a source of salt and which could also be served as a side dish for rice.

Toyama Black ramen. (Courtesy Toyama City Kankō Association)

A festival known as Owara kaze-no-bon is held every year from September 1 to 3 in Toyama. Dancers stream down the street in matching yukata and straw hats pulled down low over their faces, creating a mysterious scene. Farmers were wary of September 1, the 210th day after shunbun, the spring equinox, as it was believed to be a day when the wind would be strong. The dance came to be called kaze-no-bon (literally, “bon dance of the wind”) because it was performed at the start of typhoon season as a prayer against wind damage.

Dancing at the Kaze-no-bon festival. (Courtesy Toyama City Kankō Association)

If this has you thinking of taking a trip to Toyama, cherry blossom season is just around the corner. You can either enjoy viewing them while strolling along the banks of the Matsukawa River or while taking a pleasure boat ride. The spectacular sight of cherry blossoms against the backdrop of the snow-capped peaks of the Tateyama Mountain Range is something that can only be seen in Toyama.

Cherry blossoms along the banks of Matsukawa River. (Courtesy Toyama City Kankō Association).

(© Pixta)

Every year since 2005, The New York Times has published a list of “places to go” around the world. Morioka and Fukuoka were chosen in 2023 and Yamaguchi in 2024. This year, Osaka, the host city for the World Expo, was also selected.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo: A pleasure boat traveling along the Matsukawa River. © Pixta.)