PORT OF JAPAN
Tastings, tatami and a covered market, Niigata

Home / Niigata / Your day / Route

When it rains · Niigata

Tastings, tatami and a covered market

Wet days — Niigata’s best things are indoors anyway. Timed from the gangway and back.

Any hours door to door5 stopsA wet day
Open the route in Maps
Photo: Culture Japon / CC BY-SA
Door to door
Any hours
From the gangway and back
Best for
A wet day
Wet days — Niigata’s best things are indoors anyway
Room to spare
Flexible
Built in pieces — take as many as your stop allows.
What it costs
~¥3,500 pp
All of it under roofs.
Booking
Nothing
Every stop here takes walk-ups

Timed from the gangway with the port's official timetables · updated · Takumi Yamada

Numbers follow the route below. Pins are the places themselves; walking lines are not drawn because the best way between two stops can change with the tram, the tide or the weather.

The route

How the day runs

Times are from the moment you step off, not from the scheduled arrival. Everything shifts if your ship is late; the order does not.

  1. +0:00
    Ponshukan, unhurried

    ¥1,000 for five coins; buy a second set if one impresses you · taking the brewery tour? Drink after it — no entry after drinking

    What you will see here
  2. +1:00
    CoCoLo mall — sasa-dango and craft floors

    Same roof as the tasting hall

    What you will see here
  3. +2:00
    Imayo Tsukasa — cellar tour under cover

    15 min walk — one umbrella dash, then kura the rest

    What you will see here
    Imayo Tsukasa brewery, Niigata
    Photo: Asturio Cantabrio / CC BY-SA 4.0
  4. +3:15
    Saito Family Villa

    ¥300, closed most Mondays · rain on a merchant’s garden is the correct way to see one

    What you will see here
    Saito Family Villa, Niigata
    Photo: 新潟市 地域・魅力創造部広報課 / CC BY-SA 2.1 jp
  5. +4:15
    Taxi back

    East Port: your ship’s transport if it runs one, or a taxi (~¥9,000)

The margin is not optional. This route ends an hour before all-aboard on purpose. If you are running late, drop the last stop, not the hour.
What the day looks like

Niigata, along this route

Real photographs of the places above and the streets between them. Every one is credited.

Pier Bandai Seafood Market, Niigata
Pier Bandai Seafood MarketPhoto: Fumihiko Ueno / CC BY 3.0
Northern Culture Museum, Niigata
Northern Culture MuseumPhoto: Ann Lee / CC BY-SA 2.0
Bandai Bridge, Niigata
Bandai BridgePhoto: xiquinhosilva from Cacau / CC BY 2.0
Northern Culture Museum, Niigata
Northern Culture MuseumPhoto: Ann Lee / CC BY-SA 2.0
Tastings, tatami and a covered market, Niigata
Hegi-sobaPhoto: くろふね / CC BY-SA 4.0
Tastings, tatami and a covered market, Niigata
Tare-katsu-donPhoto: Indiana jo / CC0
Different hours, different day

The other routes in Niigata

Sake at the station, arches at the riverNeeds a 4.5-hour call · ~2.5hShort calls · West Port ships have the easy versionTwo centuries of sake, one walkable lineNeeds a 7-hour call · ~5hThe sake-capital day, no vehicle needed once downtownMerchants, landowners, and the full pourNeeds a 9-hour call · ~7hLong calls of 9 hours or more from East Port — the transfer adds ~40 min each way
Pick your own stops instead →Back to the Niigata guide
Everything in one pageThe complete Niigata guide: berth, into town, your hours, tours that fitOpen the complete guide →