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Yomiuri Shimbun file photo Dancers perform during the Owara Kaze no Bon festival in Toyama City in September 2024.
By Takanori Yamamoto / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent
14:22 JST, January 8, 2025
NEW YORK — Toyama City and Osaka City have been selected for The New York Times’ list of “52 Places to Go in 2025.”
Published on Tuesday, the list describes Toyama as a city that enables visitors to “enjoy cultural wonders and culinary delights while skipping the crowds.”
The list introduces Toyama as a gateway to the Noto Peninsula, which was devastated in 2024 by the New Year’s Day earthquake and torrential rain in September. “Although still recovering, [the city] is now courting tourists as part of [Noto’s] recovery efforts,” the list says.
Attractions recommended by the list include the Toyama Glass Art Museum and the Owara Kaze no Bon festival, a traditional event, dating back to the Edo period (1603-1867), at which people dance to pray for a plentiful harvest.
As “culinary delights,” the list recommends a restaurant that offers Japanese-style curry and an izakaya that “unexpectedly — but deliciously — pairs natural wine with oden.”
The list mentions that Osaka will host this year’s World Expo. It also describes Grand Green Osaka, a redevelopment complex near JR Osaka Station built on what used to be a rail freight yard, as a “game-changing project.”
Yamaguchi City was among the recommended places on the paper’s 2024 list.
