Toga

Togasoba festivalgassho-zukuriNantomountain village

Toyama · Nanto

36.4607°N, 137.0207°E

Toga is a mountain village at the top of a valley in Nanto, seventy minutes by road from Toyama city and considerably further in every other sense. It has gassho-zukuri farmhouses like Gokayama over the ridge, deep snow, buckwheat fields, and an internationally known experimental theatre company that moved here from Tokyo in the 1970s and built performance spaces out of the old houses.

The event that fills it is the soba festival in winter, when the new buckwheat is served alongside grilled river fish and gohei-mochi, with soba masters demonstrating, noodles from around the country to compare, and folk performance. The autumn mountain festival has a stranger draw: a re-enactment of ishikachi, the process of compacting the ground for a gassho house foundation by hauling a weighted timber up a frame and dropping it, over and over, which is how these buildings were anchored before concrete.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

Village accessible year-round | Festival events on published dates only

Closed: Roads may be restricted by snow from December to March

Entrance Fee

Free to visit | Festival food and events priced separately

Best Season

Winter for the soba festival | Autumn for the mountain festival and the ishikachi re-enactment

Visit Duration

Half a day | Overnight recommended in winter

Getting There

Access Information

Toga-mura, Nanto. Car recommended — about 70 minutes from Toyama city via Prefectural Routes 62 and 59 and Route 471. By public transport, about 60 minutes by Nanto city bus on the Toga-Yatsuo line from JR Etchu-Yatsuo Station. The soba festival is held in winter and the mountain festival in autumn; confirm dates with the Nanto tourism organisation before travelling.

Insider Guide

Premium

**Winter is the season and the obstacle.** The soba festival is a winter event and this is heavy snow country. Winter tyres are not optional and the bus is the safer choice from Etchu-Yatsuo. **Watch the ishikachi if you are here in autumn.** The re-enactment of foundation compaction for a gassho house — a weighted timber hauled and dropped from a frame — explains how these buildings stand up, and you will not see it at Shirakawa-go or Gokayama. **The theatre is real.** A significant experimental company is based here with performance spaces converted from farmhouses, and its summer festival draws an international audience to a village of a few hundred people. **Confirm dates.** Festival dates shift year to year and events have been cancelled in the past. Check with Nanto tourism rather than assuming a fixed weekend. **There is very little here otherwise.** No convenience stores to speak of, limited food outside events, and long distances between anything. Come for an event or come prepared.

View on Google Maps