Toyama Itinerary: What We Did in 2 Days (Family-Friendly)
Last Updated on June 3, 2025 by Kay
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Toyama is a prefecture located in the Japanese Alps, bordered by Gifu Prefecture, Nagano Prefecture, Niigata Prefecture, and Ishikawa Prefecture. It’s not a particularly famous prefecture for international tourists, but this makes it a great hidden gem to visit since it isn’t crowded.
My family of three visited Toyama City, the capital of Toyama Prefecture, from Kyoto at the end of January, in the middle of winter. In this article, I’ll share what our two-day trip to Toyama City was like.
Toyama Itinerary — Day 1
My husband, three-year-old son, and I left Kyoto at 7:30 AM and took the Shinkansen to Toyama Station.
After we arrived, the first thing we did was visit Fugan Canal Kansui Park.
Kansui Park is a 9-minute walk from Toyama Station. I’m originally from the UK, so it reminded me of a small London bridge. I was also very excited to go on the boat ride along the canal. Unfortunately, the boat wasn’t moving in winter, but I couldn’t find any information as to why.
On the way to the canal, we found a roast sweet potato (yaki imo) vending machine! One can either choose a hot sweet potato or a cold sweet potato.
The way up to the bridge was extremely slippery and icy, but thankfully, they have an elevator built into the bridge, which will take you to the top. I think when it’s warmer, it would be beautiful to see the bridge illuminated at night, but in the winter, it was just too cold. Even during the day, we were freezing while walking along the canal and decided to warm up and take a break inside a Starbucks.
This Starbucks has big glass windows facing the canal, but it’s quite small inside, so it might be difficult to find a space to sit, especially during the cherry blossom season. There are cherry blossom trees all along the canal, so I can imagine that it must be very beautiful in spring. If Starbucks is full, then apparently (according to my husband, who was raised in Toyama) everyone sits on the lawn along the river.
Our next stop was meant to be Onomatopoeia Rooftop at the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design. But, as everything was covered in snow and we were freezing from our short walk along the canal, we decided to skip this.
Hotaruika Museum
Instead, we decided to visit the Hotaruika Museum, which is famous for firefly squid (hotaru ika).
We took a train to the museum and then walked the rest of the way as it seems like the buses only come every hour or so. Once there, we found that we had the entire museum to ourselves.
Apparently, the only time you can see the firefly squid is during spring, so from around March 20th to the end of May. However, my son (age three) still enjoyed all the attractions that the museum had to offer.
We watched a small show telling us all about firefly squid, we watched garden eels eat lunch, we saw crabs and other interesting fish close up. In total, we spent about 30 minutes at the museum, and even though we couldn’t really see the firefly squid, we still had fun.
Hotaruika Museum is open from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM daily except Tuesdays and costs 890 yen for adults and 490 yen for kids.
Dinner
For dinner, we decided on ramen. I was excited to try the famous black ramen, Toyama Black Ramen. This is a very unique ramen and addictive dish with a jet-black soup made with simmered koikuchi soy sauce.
The soup, originally made by a shop in Toyama called Taiki in 1947, was quite salty in order to serve as a “side dish” for workers who brought rice to the ramen shop. The pungent flavor of soup became popular, now there has been an increasing number of ramen shops that serve “Black Ramen.” The degree of saltiness differs depending on the shop, but they all come with lots of pepper and shredded green onion on top, which makes the ramen very pungent. The soup also has a rich flavor of roasted pork simmered in the soup.
My husband, having grown up in Toyama, dissuaded me from eating it because he said the fishy and salty taste is quite strong and I wouldn’t like it. And he was right.
I got a package of this ramen at a souvenir shop and tried it when we were back home. I was very surprised at the strong and pungent fishy smell greeting me while preparing it, as I had thought it would be only pork. But apparently, most have fish stock as the base. It was also incredibly salty! I could barely finish it and had a headache the rest of the day. Perhaps eating Black Ramen at a restaurant would be better, but personally, I wouldn’t even risk it. My husband said, as usual, “I told you so.”
Instead, he took me to Hachiban(8) Ramen. Apparently, this ramen is loved by locals and is much more popular. I’m so glad he recommended this place because I really liked this ramen. There was even a kids’ size ramen for my son. Its selling point is all the vegetables they use, so it’s good for children, too.
Checking Into the Hotel and Sushi
My son and I were exhausted from the long day, so we headed back to the hotel. We stayed at Hotel Vischio Toyama, which has spacious rooms and is very close to Toyama Station. However, I thought the walls were too thin as I could hear someone’s phone ringing in another room. The bed was also very hard, and we had to bring a towel from our room all the way to the public bath.
In the future, we will try to stay at DoubleTree by Hilton Toyama.
While my son and I were at the hotel for the evening, my husband went to eat sushi with high expectations. He bought 6000 yen worth of sushi, only to find that it tasted the same, if not worse than, Kyoto. I’m sure some places are better than others, but he said that it wasn’t what he remembered it to be.
The next day, we tried the breakfast buffet at the hotel’s restaurant (Vischio Garden), and I ended up with light food poisoning, of all things, on the way to meet my family-in-law, so I was not impressed either.
It’s also important to note that almost everything closed at 8 pm! I was very shocked at the country-style way of living in Toyama.
Service was slow, chatty, and relaxed, shops closed early, and most people wore rain boots. Even in the city centre, people seemed to dress for warmth and comfort over style. But maybe this is just in winter.
Day 2
The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel and then went to the Toyama Glass Museum.
Toyama Glass Museum
From the photos I saw on the official website, the architecture looked amazing, and as we entered, we were definitely awestruck. The design was beautiful and definitely Instagram-worthy.
But other than that, I personally didn’t think it was worth the hype. Most of the building is a library, with each floor having a small glass display room. Naturally, they are very worried about anything getting broken or perhaps anyone getting hurt, as there was a lady watching everyone in every corner of the room and one walking around telling people to hold their children’s hands tightly and not to get too close.
My son let of of my hands for a few seconds, and a lady pounced on us and immediately reprimanded us for doing so. My husband said it was to be expected, but it made me feel really stressed. I wondered if this was really the place for kids… My son didn’t enjoy it either, to be honest.
If you don’t have much time, I would recommend staying on the first floor to enjoy the architecture and the main kids’ attraction. This is a large wooden, interactive ecosystem display, where kids can place a ball, “the seed,” inside and watch it make its way slowly back. This is to convey what happens and how a seed can restore the ecosystem.
My son loved this! Unfortunately, so did everyone else. It seems like most people were not buying a ticket to get inside the museum, but just hanging around the first floor (unsurprisingly).
And eventually, the ball disappeared! I am not sure if a staff member removed it or if someone stole it, or if it got stuck somewhere inside the wooden piece… But after 15 minutes of searching, everyone dispersed.
Toyama Glass Museum is open from 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM daily and costs 200 yen to enter.
We decided to have lunch at Sogawa Base, a shopping mall that’s a 10-minute walk from Toyama Castle, and only a 2-minute walk from the Toyama Art Glass Museum. This mall has a combined dining area with free seating and many restaurants to choose from. I really liked that we could each choose from a different restaurant and still enjoy our meal together. This definitely helps when you have picky eaters. We ordered from Shogun Pizza (it was delicious!), while my husband ordered coffee from Hazeru Coffee.
It was quite cold outside, so we were really happy to find a kotatsu table! My son also fell asleep from the warmth and comfort of the table. I liked how we could also adjust the heating and switch it on or off. The dining area also has free wifi.
Our plan was to stay a third night in Toyama, but with nothing else to see, we took the train home that night, making it a two-day trip. Next time I want to visit in spring, to see the tulips, ice road, and the Omomatiopea rooftop. Due to the snow clouds looming over us, we couldn’t see any mountains either. It was pretty dismal.
All in all, the highlight of our trip from my son’s perspective was the trams! There was even a police tram (not the tram pictured below).
The highlight for me was all the souvenirs and treats to eat. I recommend checking out Nanakoshi, which sells a pancake-like treat filled with sweet bean paste. It’s similar to taiyaki but soooo much better! It’s sweet and warms you up on a cold winter day. It’s also only 150 yen, which I think is a really good price for what you get.
I also suggest trying karinto manju. This is a Japanese sweet that has a sweet bean paste filling encased in brown sugar and wheat dough. It was my son’s favourite!
We also loved trout sushi and shiroebi senbei. These can all be found at Kitokito Ichiba TOYAMARCHE.