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Niigata

Leading ski getaway famous for rice and sake

About Niigata
Photo: Krishna.Wu / Shutterstock.com

Top Attractions in Niigata

Niigata Top 10

Upcoming Niigata Events

Tainai Sakura Festival 2025

Tainai Sakura Festival 2025

Apr 19th - Apr 20th

There are numerous sakura spots across Japan that are extremely well-known (and often crowded), but there are also plenty of hidden..

Free Entry
Sakura Season At Hakusan Park 2025

Sakura Season At Hakusan Park 2025

Mid - Late Apr

Niigata City's Hakusan Park is home to around 160 Somei Yoshino cherry trees, making it one of the area's top spots to visit..

Free Entry
Sado Toki Marathon 2025

Sado Toki Marathon 2025

Apr 26th - Apr 27th

The Sado Toki Marathon offers full and half-marathon events alongside a 10km and shorter fun run routes.

Where to eat in Niigata

Places to stay in Niigata

Latest Niigata Reports

JR Tadami Line

JR Tadami Line

Kim Bergström

The JR Tadami line is a scenic railway route that runs through the mountainous regions of Fukushima and Niigata prefectures. The..

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About Niigata

niigata
Okinawa Nagasaki Fukuoka Saga Kumamoto Kagoshima Miyazaki Oita Ehime Kochi Tokushima Kagawa Yamaguchi Hiroshima Okayama Tottori Shimane Hyogo Kyoto Osaka Wakayama Nara Shiga Mie Fukui Ishikawa Toyama Gifu Aichi Nagano Shizuoka Niigata Yamanashi Kanagawa Tokyo Saitama Gunma Tochigi Chiba Ibaraki Fukushima Miyagi Yamagata Iwate Akita Aomori Hokkaido
Region Chubu
Island Honshu
Capital Niigata
Population 2,374,450
Area 12,584.10 km²

What’s the most important food in the everyday diets of Japanese people? The answer is rice, and no prefecture does it better than Niigata Prefecture (新潟県, Niigata-ken) and their Koshi Hikari brand when it comes to rice. And that also means you can find some of Japan’s top sake there too.

Niigata is also one of the top hot springs and winter sports destinations as well; the popular Naeba Ski Resort doubles as the host of the Fuji Rock Festival (Japan’s largest outdoor music event) in late July. The Nagaoka Festival almost immediately after it is one of the three biggest fireworks displays in Japan.

Niigata’s beaches are wildly underrated, often overlooked at the expense of those on the Pacific coast. The idyllic island of Sado is famous for being the breeding spot of the rare Japanese crested ibis and for its gold mine. 

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