2 Best Sights in The Japan Alps and the North Chubu Coast, Japan

Near Gyokusen Garden, the center serves as a place where you can both buy traditional crafts from the region and see demonstrations of Yuzen dyeing, pottery, and lacquerware production. You can also try your hand at etching a personal glass seal, decorating items with delicate gold leaf, making Japanese sweets, and other crafts at regularly scheduled workshops.

This sake shop in the malls connected to Niigata Station is best known for its tasting room, where you can sample little cups of sake from each of Niigata's 90 or so breweries, all self-served from a wall of 100 shiny, silver vending machines. For a small fee, you'll be given a sake cup and five coins for the vending machines. You can also try pairing each sake with a selection of regional salts. Afterwards, the shop itself has an interesting range of sake-related souvenirs, from the actual drinks to moisturizing masks and soap made with sake lees, plus regional snacks and deli foods.