Japan Niigata prefecture travel tourism guide - Enjoy Niigata

Today I went on a mini-tour of Niigata specialties.  First, I went to the Messepia and Research Core buildings in Sanjo.  The name is a little vague, but those who know Niigata know that the Tsubame-Sanjo area is famous for metal works, and at Research Core they develop and test new metals and products.  Messepia is a building where meeting and events are held and rooms can be rented.  I just missed a fair they had for Obon, with games and things for children to do, but they still had a bustling store filled with all kinds of nice metal products, from traditional style tea pots to modern, high tech nail clippers (which might sound superfluous, but I hear they are big in Europe).  One of their specialty items was a metal beer stein that they claim makes bottled beer frothy and creamy like tap beer.  I later mentioned this to some Japanese friends of mine, and they said they had heard about it and wanted to try it.  In the Research Core building, they have two works of metal art- a car “so shiny it can’t be driven because it would be blinding” and a peacock with all the same metal that has been tempered to different colors.  It was very beautiful.

 After that, I stopped off in Niigata’s Furusato Mura for lunch.  In addition to having tourist info and a Niigata overview museum, they have a bazaar of local products and omiyage.

 Then I went north to the Ichishima Sake Factory in Shibata.  The factory has been in Shibata since the 1790`s and they have a museum of old sake making tools and personal relics to prove it.  In addition to seeing how sake was made before modern distilling machines, they also have endearing photos and household goods.  I learned the factory has only 30 employees, the majority of whom just work in the sake making season from October to March.  They use only Niigata rice, most from the Shibata area, making it a super local product (incidentally, I learned that Niigata’s delicious koshihikari rice does not make delicious sake, so they use other types)!  After the tour, I sampled several of their sakes, from sweet to spicy to expensive.  I’d never really been able to tell the difference between sake in bars, but with the variety they gave me I really could!  My favorite was the sweet Karen, which I was told is their biggest seller overseas, particularly in America.

 My final stop was the Northern Culture Museum in Somi (a northern party of Niigata City).  One of the tours guides mentioned to me that Ueda Tatsuya from the group KAT-TUN had been there earlier in the day (KAT-TUN had a concert in Niigata the day before), which I thought was pretty cool.  The Northern Culture Museum is actually the estate of the Itoh family, who where wealthy landowners and indigo importers.  I’ve seen several old estates, and this one is by far the best kept up and most impressive.  A large part of that is probably that the Itoh family still lives there.  On the tour, I learned all kinds of interesting information about the lives of the family in the past as well as the physical structure of the building.  My favorite part was the gardens; they were so serene and gorgeous.  One was what you would expect- tress, ponds, carp- but the other one had “stones meant to evoke the feeling of water,” which I had never seen before.  Upstairs they had a collection of artifacts, some of which belonged to the family, but others of which were later donated.  One really unique feature was the Sanraku-tei Arbor, which is a triangular tea house built in 1889.  Unfortunately, I only had about an hour before the museum closed, so I didn’t get to see everything.  The cafes and restaurants on the site were already closed by the time I got done touring, too, which was too bad.

 Over all, it was an interesting trip.  I’ve lived here for two years but I still learned a ton of new stuff.  I recommend the Northern Culture Museum the most, as it is always open for tourists and really gives you a glimpse of old Japan.