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Tokamachi Snow Festival
“Tokamachi snow Festival” is very popular for its warm hospitality. It was fun just looking at various snow statues from artistic one to the one made by people in general. There were famous guest singers in the folk song show and there was also a Kimono show. I was very excited when I saw fireworks set off. Tokamachi in Niigata prefecture is one of the snowiest area in Japan. In the winter, 2 to 3m of snow falls and it is a special snowy area in Japan. Even in such difficult environment of snowy region, “Tokamachi Snow Festival” is a snow festival born from the thought of local people who […]
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Sasayama Ruin and Tokamachi City Museum (flame-shaped earthenware)
“What’s this!?” The master artist Taro Okamoto also surprised when he saw it for first time! I will introduce avant-garde earthenware of Jomon period from Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture! A lot of ruins of the middle Jomon period which was about 5000 years to 4500 years ago have been found in the Shinano River basin (in and out of Nagaoka City, Tokamachi City and Tsunan Town) flowing in Niigata prefecture. Speaking of Jomon earthenware excavated in Niigata prefecture, the most famous is the “Kaen-gata Doki (flame-shaped earthenware),” which all Japanese people have seen in their elementary school textbooks, but it was first excavated in 1936 at the Umataka ruin in Nagaoka […]
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Bijin Bayashi (Beauty Forest)
The shower of negative ions come down! Refresh in Bijin Bayashi (Beauty Forest), a beauty beech grove! Both of your heart and body will be beautiful. In Tokamachi City, Niigata Prefecture, the beech grove of about 90 years old is extending in the hills of Matsunoyama. At the beginning of the Showa era, in order to make charcoal, all beeches around here have been cut down. However, since the year prior of cutting down was a great harvesting year of acorns once in several years, beeches grew together all at once and became a beech forest with same trunk size and height. Its tall and slim figure was too beautiful, […]
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Kiyotsu Gorge Tunnel
Kiyotsu Gorge which is the three-great gorge in Japan, despite being unexplored region, why men and women of all ages can visit there easily? Kiyotsu Gorge is a great gorge of about 13 km in length, formed by Kiyotsu River which is a tributary of Shinano River in Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture. It is located in Joshinetsu-kogen National Park, and together with Kurobe Gorge (Toyama prefecture) and Osugi Canyon (Mie prefecture), Kiyotsu Gorge, it is one of the three great gorges in Japan. It is also designated as a scenic spot and a natural monument of Japan. Kiyotsu Gorge has the magnificent beauty of gorge, huge quay walls beside Kiyotsu River […]