Toyama at The First Sight

November 30, 2018

Toyama at The First Sight

First time I heard about Toyama, I had no idea where exactly the city is.
It was 3 years ago, when Bayu and I got a published information about Toyama Prefectural Scholarship.

| Toyama Castle |

Most people think that Toyama is somewhere near Tokyo according to its similar name.
Actually, Toyama is located around 294 km or 155 miles to the northwest of Tokyo.
And obviously, the weather is also a little bit colder than Tokyo.

| Source: Google Map |

Toyama (富山) from its Kanji characters means "rich of mountains".
If you ever heard that Tokyo is in Kanto Region, then Toyama is in Chubu Region specifically in the sub-region of Hokuriku, along the Sea of Japan in the northern land of Honshu Island.
Quite confusing, isn't it? So, here is the illustration.

| Regions of Japan. Chubu Region is in the dark green color area. (Source) |

| Hokuriku Sub-region is in the red color area (Source) |

For me, it is very important to know the geography of every place I stay.
Oh, and don't be mistaken. Toyama that I explain this far is Toyama Prefecture that has the same name of it capital city, Toyama City.
Coincidentally, we also live in the city of Toyama.

The city is quite calm and convenience to live.
It is far from a picture of busy and rush city like Tokyo.
It is focused on agricultural aspects where more of its lands are rice fields, and of course as the meaning of its name, this city is surrounded by mountains.

| View Surround Our Neighborhood |

| View on Way to Campus |

Although the land has so many rice fields and mountains, this city is well-known of its traditional medicine. If you want to be a pharmacist, Toyama City has the best pharmacy department in the university all of Japan that has been trusted since long time ago.

As I said before, my first impression of this city is calm and convenient to have a life.
I wasn't expected living in a crowd city. So here I am living in a town with a great nature but still sophisticated.
For the temperature, because surrounded by mountains, it is colder than Tokyo.
And of course, I must get used to it since I came from the tropical country.

First time I came, we lived near the University of Toyama.
The neighborhood was more rice fields and countryside.

I should publish this article a year ago because there are so much different things change lately, but I think it's okay to share it now and then share another update soon.
So, here a glimpse of my first sight at Toyama in my early days of living.