3 Best Restaurants in The Japan Alps and the North Chubu Coast, Japan

Seasonal seafood and regional specialties dominate the menu here, with dishes like wappa-meshi (rice steamed in a wooden box with toppings of salmon, chicken, or crab) making for an inexpensive and excellent lunch and, depending on the season, more elaborate dinner courses including yanagi karei hitohoshi-yaki (grilled flounder), nodo-guro shioyaki (grilled blackthroat seaperch), and buri teriyaki (yellowtail). Inaka-ya, which closes between lunch and dinner from 2:30 to 5, is found in the heart of Furu-machi, the local eating and drinking district.

Here you'll find all kinds of fresh fish, some of which are found only in the Sea of Japan. For easy ordering, opt for a set course and ask for a Niigata sake to go with it; nowhere in Japan does sake better. Marui closes during midafternoon. It's one block off the Furu-machi arcade.

Various sashimi and sushi combinations are reasonably priced at this small but beautiful sushi bar close to the post office in Wajima. With the post office on your right, walk two blocks down Route 249. It's on your right just after the road takes a slight diagonal turn.