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

This mansion once belonged to a physician who served the local daimyo (feudal lord). It has mysterious eccentricities—hanging ceilings, secret windows, and hidden passages—all of which suggest ninja associations. Displays include wall hangings, weaving machines, and other Hida regional items.

This museum is in a house from the 1880s that belonged to the Kusakabe family—wealthy traders of the Edo period. This national treasure served as a residence and warehouse, where the handsome interior, with heavy, polished beams and an earthy barren floor, provides an appropriate setting for Hida folk crafts such as lacquered bowls and wood carvings, as well as trappings of family wealth that include a bridal palanquin.

This elegant house in Naga-machi was rebuilt more than 100 years ago by an industrialist named Nomura. Visit the Jodan-no-ma drawing room made of cypress, with elaborate designs in rosewood and ebony. Then pass through the sliding doors to a wooden veranda. Rest your feet here, and take in the stunning little garden with weathered lanterns among pine and maple trees, and various shrubs and bonsai. Stepping stones lead to a pond dotted with moss-covered rocks and brilliant orange-flecked carp. In the upstairs tearoom you can enjoy a bird's-eye view of the gardens and a cup of matcha (green tea) for ¥300.

On the banks of the Agano River on the Kanbara Plain, the museum is a 40-minute bus ride from Niigata Station. This former estate was established in the Edo period by the Ito family, which, by the 1930s, was the largest landowner in the Kaetsu area, with 8,352 acres of paddy fields, 2,500 acres of forest, and 78 overseers who controlled no fewer than 2,800 tenants. Ito Mansion, built in 1887, was their home for generations until the Land Reform Act of 1946. With its valuable art collection it became this museum, which has 65 rooms, as well as three restaurants and a coffee shop.

Its five teahouses are in different parts of the garden (two of them built later), and numerous natural rocks—mostly from Kyoto—are artistically arranged around the pond. At Niigata ask the tourist information office to point you in the direction of the right bus, which takes 40 minutes. A taxi takes 20 minutes.

The Saitou family was one of Niigata's most successful merchant families in the Meiji period. Their old villa, built in 1917, is a charming two-story wooden building with a pretty landscaped garden that is especially stunning when the leaves change color in the fall. Once you've explored the building and strolled the garden, stop for matcha tea and sweets in the tatami-floored tearoom that looks out into the grounds. To get there, take the Niigata loop bus to the Hoppo Bunka Hakubutsukan Niigata Bunkan-mae stop, from where it's a two-minute walk.

Constructed in the early 19th century, this elegant former geisha house, listed as a National Important Cultural Asset, is now a museum of Kanazawa geisha culture. While there, stop off in the tea room for matcha and sweets. That costs an extra ¥500 to ¥700 on top of admission, depending on the type of sweet.

This rare collection of stately buildings housed the 25 officials of the Tokugawa Shogunate who administered the Hida region for 176 years. Highlights include an original storehouse (1606), which held city taxes in sacks of rice, a torture chamber (curiously translated as the "law court"), and samurai barracks. Free, guided tours in English are available on request and take 30 to 50 minutes. Fruit, vegetables, and local crafts are sold at the nearby Jinya-mae Asa-ichi morning market, open until noon. From the JR Station, head east on Hirokoji-dori for a few blocks to the old section of town. Before the bridge, which crosses the small Miya-gawa, turn right, pass another bridge, and the Takayama Jinya is on your right.