ABOUT KASHIWAZAKI CITY


■A Brief Introduction of Kashiwazaki City

　　Kashiwazaki is located 250 km north of Tokyo and has a population of about 90,000. The number of foreigners living in Kashiwazaki is 701; 174 are from China, 168 from the Philippines, 93 from North and South Koreas, 69 from Thailand, 27 from Brazil, 11 from U.S.A., and the rest are from other countries（as of Nov.30,2000）.
　　In 1995, Kashiwazaki won 7th place in the contest of the most favorite city in Japan. Several merits are highly valued in the contest: health-service, security, convenient city life and housing. To the east exist beautiful mountain ranges, while on the west is seen the Sea of Japan, both contributing to make a highly suitable natural environment for research and study.
　　It takes about 2 hours to Tokyo from Kashiwazaki; 90 minutes by bullet train after riding 30 minutes express train. An express train links Kashiwazaki to Kyoto or Osaka（5 hours）. Express highway buses are also available to Tokyo （4 hours）. Niigata City, the capital of Niigata Prefecture, is located 80km north-east of Kashiwazaki. In Niigata City, there is a small international airport which has direct flights to Seoul (South Korea), Xi'an, Shanghai and Harbin (China), Khabarovsk and Vladivostok (Russia), Honolulu (U.S.A.) and Guam as well as several domestic cities.