 Despite winter in Toyama being relatively mild, its position near the Sea of Japan places it within the heavy snow belt of Japan and on average of snow falls each season, almost all of it from December through March, as well as occasionally experiencing some tremendous amounts of snowfall.The area of present-day Toyama city was part of ancient Etchū Province.The Toyama Plain is good farmland and historically it was a point of strategic and traffic importance since prehistoric times.