Along the Sea of Japan, Niigata prefecture is not the tourists’ favorite. Yet it is a popular winter vacations area for Japanese. And the prefecture is mainly famous for its rice, Japan’s best, and is competing with Hokkaido regarding the amount of rice produced yearly. Surrounded by high mountains, Niigata offers beautiful sights of terraced rice paddies. Among them, Tokamachi’s ones are known as one of Japan 100 best rural views of Japan – and are of course one of the Heisei 100 landscapes!

How to get there?

A car is necessary to reach the landscapes. The terraces rice paddies are 20 minutes away from Matsudai station, on the Hokuhoku line. Or one hour away from Tokamachi, Joetsu or Joetsumyoko station, the last one being only two hours from Tokyo using the Hokuriku shinkansen (about 9300 yens).