Niigata - a city of fine rice and sake

Situated in the middle of the Japan Sea coast and straddling the Shinano river, Niigata is both an important port city and the capital of a prefecture famed for it’s rice and sea food. The city is connected to Tokyo by the world record setting 6 billion yen (approximately $55 million USD) a kilometre bullet train line built at the behest of Tanaka Kakue, a local politician who briefly served as Japan’s Prime Minister.

The city itself is cut in half by the Shinano river and most of the sights are on the western side around Hakusan park. From the station area in the east, cross the beautifully carved Bandai Bridge to get to downtown Furumachi. There are a few older shops in this area and an interesting day-long market which is great for cheap eats. The dominating figure though is the Next 21 building, Niigata’s tallest. The 19th floor of this building has great (free) views of the city and abundant shops and restaurants.

In contrast to the modernity of Next 21 is Niigata’s Hakusan Park. Created in the late 19th century, it was based on Dutch style landscaping but has some Japanese touches such as a lily pond and fine tea house. The park is home to Hakusan Jinja, Niigata’s most important shrine, dedicated to the God of Marriage. At the edge of the park lies the Niigata Prefectural Government Memorial Hall that now remains as the only assembly hall of the Meiji era in Japan. Local representatives continued to meet here until 1932, but the hall is now open to the public and contains historical information about the area. It is said that the hall was modelled on the British Houses of Parliament.

When eating out, seafood is the order of the day with Namban Ebi (shrimp) reputed as having a particularly refined, sweet taste, literally melting on the tongue. The beautiful coastline close to Niigata City provides a great place to BBQ some of the seafood easily available at the local fish markets. Rice lovers will be pleased too as Koshihikari rice which is grown on the vast fields of rich soil saturated in water has long enjoyed the reputation of being one of Japan's best varieties.

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