Beyond the tulip fields stands the Tateyama mountain range, still wearing its snow. Color fills the ground at your feet; lift your eyes and the ridgeline is pure white. In a Toyama spring, winter and spring share a single field of view. There is no need to travel south for flowers and north for snow — one place to stand takes in both. That is spring in this prefecture. The white retreats up the mountains as the season advances, and in exchange the colors of the plain multiply by the day.
The lingering snow sets off the colors of the plain
The Tonami plain is tulip-growing country, and in spring its fields become bands of color. The color seeps into the landscape of the scattered village (sankyoson), where houses ringed by their windbreak groves stand dotted among the paddies. The Tateyama mountain range behind still holds plenty of snow, and it is that white that makes the colors of the plain read so deep. Around the time the thaw advances and the paddies are flooded, there are mornings when the mountains lie mirrored on the water. In the evening the colors of the darkening sky come straight down onto the water, and walking the paths between the fields, the smell of water announces the turn of the season.
At night, to the bay — firefly squid season
In spring, Toyama Bay belongs to the firefly squid. These small squid, drawn to the coast to spawn, are the stars of the spring table and famous at the same time for their pale blue glow. The shore is cold on spring nights, so add a layer before heading out and you can stay much longer. Flowers and snow mountains by day, a glowing bay by night. No other season swings this wide within a single day.
If you go up the mountain, Yuki no Otani on the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route belongs to the spring opening period alone. Walking between walls of snow left by the road clearing is a passage granted only to spring in snow country. On a blue-sky day, the white of the walls takes the eyes a moment to adjust to.
Spring in Toyama is a few weeks that let go of neither the tail of winter nor the height of spring. A prefecture where two seasons exist at once — and this is the only time of year you can walk inside the overlap.