[For Seniors] Toyama Prefecture Local Quiz! Deepen your knowledge while training your brain with traditional crafts, sightseeing spots, and specialty souvenirs

Toyama Black

Toyama Black is a type of ramen characterized by a jet-black broth made with rich soy sauce and a generous amount of black pepper. It is said to have originated as a salty dish so that manual laborers could eat it as a side with rice.

Trout sushi

Masu no Sushi is a representative local dish of Toyama Prefecture and a famous regional souvenir. It is a type of pressed sushi made by wrapping salted trout and vinegared rice in bamboo leaves, placing them in a wooden container called a magewappa, and applying pressure; it is very popular throughout Japan.

Tateyama Mountain Range

The Tateyama Mountain Range towering on the eastern side of the Toyama Plain offers a magnificent view on clear days, with three-thousand-meter-class peaks lined up like a folding screen. Their snow-clad appearance is especially beautiful, a sight that Toyama residents regard as a landscape of the heart—a spiritual hometown.

white shrimp

Shira-ebi (white shrimp) is a specialty of Toyama Bay. Freshly landed, their bodies are translucent with a pale pink hue, and they sparkle beautifully in the light, earning them the nickname “the jewel of Toyama Bay.” They are exquisite when eaten as kakiage fritters or prepared as kombu-jime (cured with kelp).

Rock ptarmigan

The rock ptarmigan is Toyama Prefecture’s official bird and has been designated a Special Natural Monument of Japan. It inhabits high mountains such as the Tateyama Range, and a notable feature is that its plumage molts to pure white in winter, allowing it to blend into snowy landscapes.

Medicine peddler (itinerant drug merchant)

They were famous as the “medicine peddlers of Etchu-Toyama.” They traveled all over the country using the okigusuri (placement medicine) system, in which they would leave a medicine box with each household and, upon their next visit, collect payment only for what had been used. Many people may remember receiving paper balloons as little gifts for children.

Kurobe Dam

Kurobe Dam is a hydroelectric power dam built on the Kurobe River flowing through Tateyama, Toyama Prefecture. Standing 186 meters tall, it is Japan’s largest dam and was completed in 1963 (Showa 38). The sightseeing water discharge, which sprays over 10 tons of water per second, is incredibly powerful and attracts many visitors.