Toyama

Near Murodo at 2,450m the road is cut out of the winter's snow, leaving walls close to 20m high to walk between. It is open from the Alpine Route's mid-April opening until around June, and on clear days the glare off the snow calls for sunglasses.

At 186m it is the tallest dam in Japan. Water is released only from late June to mid-October, and on many days a rainbow hangs over the spray. Reaching the viewing deck means 220 steps, which leaves you out of breath.

An old canal basin turned into a park, whose Starbucks won the company's own design award in 2008 and got called its most beautiful branch. A red string telephone links the two towers at either end, so words spoken in one carry to the other.

It shares TOYAMA Kirari, a Kengo Kuma building, with the city library, and the atrium is lined top to bottom with cedar louvres set at staggered angles. The sixth floor holds Dale Chihuly's work and nothing else, and plenty of visitors come only for that.

Dropping 350m in four tiers, it is Japan's longest waterfall. The bus road from Tateyama station opens just for late April to November, and in the spring melt the taller Hannoki Falls appears beside it for a while.

The gassho-zukuri houses of two villages, Ainokura and Suganuma, were inscribed by UNESCO together in 1995. Far fewer coach tours come than to neighbouring Shirakawa-go, and a few thatched minshuku let you stay overnight and eat dinner around the hearth.

A shore where the 3,000m Tateyama peaks rise beyond the sea, sharpest on clear winter mornings. Minamoto no Yoshitsune is said to have sheltered from rain at a rock in the shallows, and many people wait for a JR Himi Line train to pass in front of it.

An Amida recast in bronze in early Showa by the craftsmen of Takaoka, famed for copper casting for over 400 years. The gallery beneath the pedestal keeps the flame-shaped halo of the earlier wooden Buddha, and Takaoka station is a little over 10 minutes away.

Built by the Kaga lord Maeda Toshitsune to pray for his elder brother, this Zen temple has three national treasures: gate, Buddha hall and lecture hall. Walk 10 minutes from Takaoka station's south exit. The Buddha hall wears lead, not tile, to save weight.

An old port street of shipowners' houses built on Kitamaebune trade money, about 20 minutes from Toyama station by tram. The Masuda brewery halfway along sells its sake, and many shops shut on Sunday, so a weekday is better.

Takaoka's casting quarter, founded in 1611 when the Kaga lord brought in seven metal casters. Copper strips are set into the stone-paved lane between fine-latticed houses, and a few workshops let you pour a small tin dish, most of which need booking.

A Takaoka street of fireproof earthen-walled merchant houses rebuilt after a great fire in 1900, now a national preservation district. A brick bank stands among black plaster walls and heavy tiled roofs, and one old shop open to visitors shows the firewalls.

An old hillside town 25 minutes from Toyama by JR, with lattice-fronted houses climbing lanes above stone walls. On September 1-3 the Owara Kaze-no-Bon fills them with silent dancers moving to the kokyu fiddle all night; rooms are few, so most stay in Toyama.

A narrow canal in Shinminato, Imizu, with fishing boats tied up along both banks, nicknamed the Venice of Japan. Each little bridge over it has its own design, and people really live here, so dawn brings the sound of boats heading out.