Things to Do in Chubu, Japan
Central Japan: Mount Fuji, the Japan Alps, historic post towns and the Sea of Japan coast.
183 destinations across 9 prefectures
Festivals in Chubu
© Bernard Gagnon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Takayama Matsuri
14 to 15 April 2027
Gifu · Float procession
© Koichi_Hayakawa / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Nagaoka Fireworks
2 to 3 August 2027
Niigata · Fireworks festival
© 信州高原青馬写真クラブ / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Lake Suwa Fireworks
15 August 2027
Nagano · Fireworks festival
© Kropsoq (talk) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Katakai Fireworks
10 to 11 September 2027
Niigata · Fireworks festival
Suggested Itineraries
Places to Visit in Chubu
Minobusan Kuon-ji
Nichiren's Mountain Temple, Up 287 Steep Stone Steps
Head temple of the Nichiren Shu school, where Nichiren lived from 1274 and where his ashes rest. ...
Mount Asama
An Active Volcano Where the Alert Level Decides How Far You Climb
The 2,568-meter volcano that smokes behind Karuizawa, on the Nagano and Gunma border. The crater ...
Mount Omuro
A Grassy Volcano in Ito You Can Only Climb by Chairlift
A 580-meter scoria cone in Ito, a protected natural monument that nobody may climb on foot. A six...
Fugaku Wind Cave
A Flat 15-Minute Walk Through a Lava Tube Once Used for Silkworm Eggs
A horizontal lava tube 201 m long in the Aokigahara forest, about 3°C inside, with ice that lasts...
Michi-no-Eki Donguri-no-Sato Inabu
Rice-flour bread and a hot spring in the Aichi hills
A mountain stop on Route 153 in Inabu, the far northeast corner of Toyota city. People queue for ...
Michi-no-Eki Echizen
A crab museum and sea-view baths on the Echizen coast
A seaside station on Route 305 built around Echizen crab, the male snow crab Fukui is known for. ...
Michi-no-Eki Hakushu
Free spring water below Mt. Kai-Komagatake
On Route 20 at the foot of Mt. Kai-Komagatake, where locals queue with plastic jugs for free spri...
Nirayama Reverberatory Furnace
The Shogunate's Cannon Foundry in Izu, Four Brick Chimneys Finished in 1857
Two pairs of furnaces under four brick chimneys about 15.7 m tall, built by the shogunate between...
Lake Hamana
Eel, a Red Torii in the Water and a Sunset Lined Up in Winter
A brackish lagoon of about 65 square kilometres on the west side of Hamamatsu, open to the sea si...
Michi-no-Eki Arai
A big food stop shared by Route 18 and the expressway
On Route 18 in Myoko, next to the Arai parking area and smart interchange of the Joshin-etsu Expr...
Michi-no-Eki Fujikawa-juku
Purple barley at an old Tokaido post town
A Route 1 station in Okazaki styled after the townhouses of Fujikawa-juku, the 37th of the Tokaid...
Michi-no-Eki Shinshu Tsutaki-juku
Hot spring and Suwa sake at the Yamanashi border
A Route 20 stop just inside Nagano from the Yamanashi border, named after an old Koshu Kaido post...
Okazaki Castle
The Castle Where Tokugawa Ieyasu Was Born, Rebuilt in 1959
Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man who founded the Tokugawa shogunate, was born in this castle. The concret...
Tokugawa Art Museum
Owari Tokugawa Treasures and the Genji Scrolls, Shown Each November
The collection of the Owari Tokugawa family, more than 10,000 items including nine National Treas...
Japan Monkey Park
Meitetsu's hillside amusement park outside Inuyama
An old-school amusement park on a wooded hill east of Inuyama, with a coaster that runs through t...