CHUBU
 Chūbu
(中部) is the central region of Japan's
Honshu island and includes
Mount Fuji. The region is
often further divided into three more areas, namely Tōkai (東海) for the
southern Pacific coast, Kōshin'etsu (甲信越) for the northern Sea of
Japan coast and Hokuriku (北陸) for the rest.
Chubu Prefectures
Tōkai
Aichi — mostly urban sprawl around Nagoya.
Gifu — home to the northern Japan Alps and many hot springs
Shizuoka
Kōshin'etsu
Nagano
Niigata
Yamanashi
Hokuriku
Fukui
Ishikawa
Toyama
Chubu Cities
Hida-Takayama — attractively preserved town and a good starting point
for trips to the Japan Alps
Nagano — Japan's winter sports capital
Nagoya — Chubu's largest city by far
Niigata — Major port city on the northern coast
Kanazawa - Includes
Kenrokuen
Garden - officially one of the three most beautiful gardens.
Hamamastu - famous for its eel pie.
Toyama
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
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
Hot springs at Yarinosato, Shin-Hotaka,
Okuhidaonsengo, Japan
Understand
Hot springs in the Oku-Hida Onsen VillagesChubu means "middle
region", accurately reflecting its position straddling the two
Japanese poles of Kansai and Kanto. Often ignored by tourists, with de
facto capital Nagoya being a byword for boredom, Chubu's best
attractions are in the mountains, particularly the (only slightly
hyperbolic) Japan Alps.
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!".
Get in
By plane
Nagoya's airport is one of the largest in
Japan, with many domestic and
international connections.
By train
The Tokaido Shinkansen
bisects Chubu, connecting to Tokyo in
the east and Osaka and
Kyoto in the west.
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.
Do
Winter sports. The Koshin'etsu district is also known as Snow
Country (雪国 Yukiguni), since it receives some of the heaviest snowfall
in the world. This makes Chubu Japan's undisputed winter sports
capital with attractions like Nagano, site of the 1998 Winter
Olympics.
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.
Eat
Chubu's regions all have their local specialities. Some include:
Hotaru ika (lit. "firefly squid") in Toyama
Tempura shrimp in Nagoya
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.
(Article
based on
Wikitravel article
by Based on work by Mitch Sako, Evan Prodromou and Brian Kurkoski,
Wikitravel user(s) InterLangBot, Mark and Nzpcmad and Anonymous user(s)
of Wikitravel. Article used under
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0.) |
