Journeys from Chubu Centrair International Airport — How Far Have You Gone? Part 2, Inami Village

Journeys from Chubu Centrair International Airport — How Far Have You Gone from Nagoya’s Chubu Centrair International Airport? Part 2: Inami Village

Nagoya’s Chubu Centrair International Airport is the gateway to Japan’s Chubu region. Centered on Aichi Prefecture (愛知県), where Nagoya is located, it connects Gifu (岐阜県), Nagano (長野県), Toyama (富山県), and Fukui (福井県), linking the interior of Honshu and the Northern Alps. From half-day outings just 10 minutes away by public transit to long-haul trips that take more than three hours by car, the airport is the starting point for journeys of every kind.

Words Pyo Youngso
Photos Jung Sooim
Coordinator Park Seonghui (Inpainter Global)
In collaboration with Chubu Centrair International Airport

A Night in a Traditional Craft Village: Inami

Inami, a small town in Nanto, Toyama Prefecture (南砺市), is quiet. How quiet? It was named one of the “World’s Quietest Places of 2025” by the international travel magazine “Condé Nast Traveler.” Walking along Yokamachi-dori (八日町通り), the shopping street that runs straight to the gates of Zuisenji, on a midday when hardly a soul is about, you’ll notice several shops proudly displaying posters announcing the news. The claim that the only sounds breaking the town’s stillness are those of wooden mallets and carving chisels hardly seems an exaggeration. Home of traditional Japanese woodcraft: that epithet has followed Inami for some 250 years, and it still does. At the end of the street stands Zuisenji (瑞泉寺), where that history begins. After the temple was founded in the 14th century, repeated wars and fires drove the development of the carpentry skills needed to restore it, and those skills reached their peak when a great fire in the mid-18th century burned the temple to the ground. Master wood carvers, the finest of their day, were sent from Kyoto to pass on their techniques, and a woodcarving art all its own began to flourish. From the main gate with its carved dragons to the main hall, the largest wooden structure in the Hokuriku region (northwestern Honshu), and the Taishido (太子堂), whose intricate eave decorations inspire awe, Zuisenji showcases the splendor and precision of Japanese wood carving at its height.

Today, Inami, with a population of about 8,000, is home to some 200 master wood carvers. From the woodcraft shops and workshops near the temple drift the faint scent of wood and the sound of chisels. Modern woodcraft, of course, is no longer limited to Buddhist sculpture. You can see the change in the dainty cat carvings tucked into corners all along the streets. Bed and Craft, meanwhile, puts the town’s traditional crafts to work through “lodging and experiences.” A village hotel made up of six stand-alone houses, it came to life by renovating vacant homes in collaboration with local artists. Each house was designed entirely by a single artist—a wood carver, a ceramicist, a lacquer artist—so each is both an artwork and a gallery. In other words, every house offers a completely different experience. During their stay, guests can view the artist’s works, join workshops led by the artist, or purchase pieces they like. Ishihara Yoshisada (石原良定), a sculptor of Buddhist statues in the town who collaborated with Bed and Craft on the house called TenNE, says he gladly joined the project because he believed that new lodgings in a shrinking town would be good for the next generation. He adds that some older artisans, who were not enthusiastic at first, seem to have changed their minds now, nearly a decade later.

Bed and Craft also takes part in a regional revitalization project that puts the town’s vacant houses to use. Since the first lodging opened, some 80 empty homes have been turned into shops and offices. Collaborations with local merchants are an important part of the work, too: Haiz Coffee, a roasterie café; Kubota, a neighborhood bakery open just three days a week; and NAT.BREW, a local craft brewery that makes distinctive beers from regional ingredients. After all, enriching the local community is essential to a village hotel’s sustainable future.

Sake by a Wine Master: IWA Brewery

In Tateyama (立山), in northern Toyama Prefecture, stands a brewery that should pique the curiosity of any sake lover. It belongs to IWA, founded by Richard Geoffroy, the fifth chef de cave of Dom Pérignon. Set among rice paddies and fields at the foot of the mountains, the huge, dark building with its crisply modern roofline, as if drawn with a ruler, is the first sake brewery designed by the world-renowned architect Kengo Kuma. It takes its name from the place where it stands, Shiraiwa (白岩). Because the area offers views of Japan’s mountains, sea, and rice fields all at once, Shiraiwa was chosen from about ten candidate sites in Toyama.
IWA’s sake, sold under the name “IWA 5,” is distinguished by its use of winemaking’s blending techniques alongside traditional sake-brewing methods. Three varieties of sake rice and five strains of yeast are blended together. So it is only natural that the word “assemblage” is used to tell IWA’s sakes apart. After the sake is brewed from October to March, blending follows in April and May and bottling from June to August. It is then aged in the bottle for about a year and a half before going on sale. And how does the finished sake taste? Delicate yet balanced in flavor and aroma, with a clean finish, it is remarkably appealing. Its smooth texture owes much to groundwater drawn from 350 meters beneath the Tateyama mountains.
Unfortunately, IWA does not open its brewery to the general public, but it is still worth a visit if you are traveling in the area. Just gazing from a distance at Kengo Kuma’s work, standing aloof amid the nature of Shiraiwa, is quite moving.

A Hot Spring Soak at the Foot of the Northern Alps: Okuhida Onsen Village

The Hida Mountains, which span Toyama, Gifu, and Nagano prefectures, belong to the Northern Alps, the most rugged of Japan’s three great Alpine ranges. Okuhida, as its name suggests, is a hot spring village set deep in the southern reaches of the Hida Mountains, at an elevation of around 1,000 meters. It comprises five hot spring areas (Hirayu, Fukuji, Shin-Hirayu, Tochio, and Shinhotaka), and more than 50 open-air baths are scattered along its rivers and valleys, so visitors can enjoy a leisurely retreat amid pristine nature and the charms of all four seasons. With abundant spring water and a different water quality at each onsen, it is also a top destination for “hot spring pilgrims.”
Hoshino Resorts KAI Okuhida (Hoshino Resorts KAI Okuhida) greets visitors as they arrive in Hirayu, the largest of the five areas and the gateway to the hot spring village. It is a brand-new ryokan that opened last fall. The first Hoshino Resorts KAI ryokan in Gifu Prefecture, it is built around the concept of a traditional Hida-style inn that carries on the traditions and craftsmanship of the Hida region, in what is now northern Gifu. Everything guests experience during their stay is thoughtfully tied to the local culture: the building, designed to blend naturally into the surrounding landscape; the interior, furnished with furniture and crafts made from local wood using magewaki bentwood (a technique of steaming wood to bend it into curves, introduced from Germany a century ago and now established as part of Hida’s woodworking tradition); the kaiseki course meals, reworked each season with local specialties such as Hida beef and seasonal ingredients; and even the Hida craft workshops. Between the buildings that house the guest rooms, the large communal bath, and the lounge, low fences of natural materials such as stone and wood, along with footpaths and courtyards, create a cozy atmosphere, like a small village within the village.

The waters of Hirayu Onsen are hydrogen carbonate springs containing minerals such as sodium, calcium, and magnesium, and are said to be good for the skin and for blood circulation. During a stay at KAI Okuhida, you can enjoy a variety of hot spring experiences: a large communal bath with indoor and open-air pools, private baths in the guest rooms, and an outdoor foot bath. Of these, the foot bath, with the sound of the stream and the misty, mysterious mountainside as a backdrop, may be where the place’s charm is at its peak. Another plus is that the village’s public open-air bath, Hirayunoyu (6 a.m.–9 p.m. in summer, 8 a.m.–7 p.m. in winter), is only a two- to three-minute walk away. Its opaque, ocher-colored water is its signature, and you simply drop your fee into the payment box and use it on the honor system. Because it is a modest village bath without showers, towels, or bath amenities, it is especially convenient for KAI Okuhida guests.