Toyama

Gokayama Ainokura Village and Folkhouse Museum (Gassho Zukuri-syuraku to Ainokura Minzoku-kan (Gokayama))

With Shirakawa Village in Gifu Prefecture, this is also a UNESCO designated World Heritage site. The mountain valley village contains twenty-four houses in the great gassho-zukuri style, which resembles giant A-frame construction (though it is in fact post and beam). In the village's Ainokura Folk Museum Building ,1, visitors can see the accoutrements and implements used in everyday life in the village; in Building ,2, the tools of local papermaking (Gokayama paper) are on display.

Zuizen-ji temple (Zuisen-ji)

Constructed in 1390 by order of the 5th abbot of Kyoto's Hongan-ji temple, this temple is the main center of Pure Land Buddhism for the Hokuriku region of central Honshu. The Main Hall is the largest wooden building in the Hokuriku region, which, with the Taishi Hall, is embellished with the highest quality of carvings done in the Inami wood carving style.

Great Buddha of Takaoka (Takaoka Daibutsu)

First sculpted in 1745, the wooden Great Buddhas were twice destroyed by fire. The present bronze Great Buddha took 30 years to construct, utilizing the highest bronze casting techniques of Takaoka, techniques for which this city is internationally famous. It was completed in 1933. A Great Buddha Festival is held every year on September 23.