Get your bearings from the 31st story of the tallest building on the coast of the Sea of Japan—it will be instantly clear why Niigata has long been a key trading port. Niigata’s long, protected harbor was one of the first in the country to open to the outside world in the 1850s, after some 250 years of self-imposed isolation under the shogun, spurred by the arrival of the so-called Black Ships of the U.S. Navy. Today, it’s the largest city on the Sea of Japan, with a population of over 800,000 people.
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