"Niigata City" by KevinMichael

Japan's longest, the Shinano River, gleams brightly on a nice sunny day.
The second, the Agano River, is wider at its mouth and looks equally beautiful.

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A bit of Niigata

I've been living here for more than 10 years.

Niigata City is a beautiful place to live. Nature surrounds the city with gorgeous mountains just a bit in the distance. I feel very at peace here with a populace almost free of malice or crime.

The Niigata Plain has historically been extremely suitable for the growing of rice. And as a result, in the feudal age Niigata's abundant harvests allowed its Daimyo to be a source of power and influence.

In what was an agrarian society, rice was the main staple as well as the main determinant of economic wealth. Goods and services were paid in rice.

The Japanese also developed many different forms of food stuff and products that could be derived from rice (ie. sake, mochi, senbei).

Niigata has a number of different industries, an airport, and a seaport.
Many products are made in Niigata and shipped throughout Japan and all over the world.

Niigata is also special for another reason. It is one of the few large cities that wasn't heavily bombed during World War II. Why was Niigata spared? Well, originally Niigata had been selected as the target for use of the second atomic bomb. Niigata is often clouded over. And at the time many residents may have thought how unfortunate that they had another bad day of weather. But, because the weather was bad on the day the 2nd bomb was to be dropped, a second site was selected. And Nagasaki then bore the horror of the bomb. Niigata's luck was Nagasaki's doom.

My life would have been unknowling affected by this event had it happened here instead. Many of the people I have come to love would have been either killed or never born had the bomb been dropped here.