Chubu

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Ch?bu (??) is the central region of Japan's Honshu island.

	chubu Travel Guide : 1 Prefectures 2 Cities 3 Other destinations 4 Understand 5 Talk 6 Get in 6.1 By plane 6.2 By train 7 Get around 8 See 9 Do 10 Eat 11 Drink 12 Get out 13 External links

Prefectures

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

• T?kai (??), for the southern Pacific coast
  • Aichi — mostly urban sprawl around Nagoya
  • Gifu — home to the northern Japan Alps and many hot springs
  • Shizuoka
• Hokuriku (??), for the northern Sea of Japan coast
  • Fukui
  • Ishikawa
  • Toyama
• K?shin'etsu (???), for the rest
  • Nagano
  • Niigata
  • Yamanashi — at the foothills of Mount Fuji

Cities

• 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

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

Understand

Chubu 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

Chubu Centrair International Airport, Japan's third major international gateway, is located on an artificial island 30 minutes south from Nagoya.

By train

The Tokaido Shinkansen bisects Chubu, connecting to Tokyo in the east and Osaka and Kyoto in the west.

Get around

See

• In the Oku-Hida region around Takayama, check out the traditional gassh?-zukuri houses, with a roof shaped like hands in prayer to protect against snow from accumulating.
• There are many famous temples in Nagano, notably Zenk?ji, 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. 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 (?? 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.

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 (???), Koshinokanbai (????) and Hakkaisan (???).

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

Get out

External links