Have you seen our latest video on Niigata? Check it out by clicking here. Niigata is on the northwestern side of Japan and sits on a large flat plain along the coast. After departing our family home on Lake Nojiri, we travelled to the Niigata area where we stopped at three unique museums.
As I’ve said before, just about anywhere you go in Japan, if you stop in a modestly sized town, you’re going to encounter a museum or two. Even some of the smallest towns (and Niigata is not small by any means), you’ll find such museums on local history, crafts or quirky subjects. South of Niigata, you’ll find three such museums.
We already did a full video on the Shirone Kite Museum which is the largest in Japan. We include it in this video, but also the Tsubame Industrial Museum which sounds off-putting, but turned out to be fascinating. Also included is a segment on Nagaoka Fireworks Museum (which happens to be free) and goes into depth about the largest fireworks display/competition in Japan that takes place nearby. Interestingly, when we visited these museums, we were the only western visitors, and in two of the museums, we were the ONLY visitors. So this is a great way to escape the crowds of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Check out the video here!