Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route

  • Day 1
  • Day 2 ← You’re here!

Day 2

Midagahara (弥陀ヶ原)

Like any other ryokan experience, we woke up earlier for a quick dip in the baths before breakfast. Also, thanks to jetlag, we woke up early enough to do the quick trail up to an observation “platform” to observe Tateyama’s caldera (platform in quotes because it is also buried underneath snow). Most of the other trails were closed due to snow and unstable conditions, but then again, with boardwalks buried below a few meters of snow, what can you do. The trail up to the platform isn’t marked other than following the footsteps of people who have already gone up before. While relatively short, hiking in snow at 6:30AM was…an experience. The hotel does provide boots and trekking poles that you can borrow though so you con’t get your shoes sopping wet. Check in with the front desk to see how conditions are before heading out.

how high can you climb up so you can roll down

About 15 minutes later, we arrived at the ledge for an absolutely spectacular view. The park staff have marked the edge of the cliff with poles in an X formation - do not cross those as it is a long way down (and the platform railing is nowhere to be seen underneath all the snow.) Since we’ve hiked this before 7 in the morning, we passed by maybe at most one other person. The remoteness definitely is nice, especially compared to all the people we will soon see later in the day along the route. There is cell reception the whole way in case something does happen, though (and you still can send Snaps to peeps of where you are, heh).

Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Tokyo anymore

Breakfast is self-serve from a buffet bar with a decently large selection of both Japanese and Western options. We were able to snag a window-side table so we can admire the view (read: get blinded by snow, to some extent) while enjoying our food. (As an aside, breakfast does require a reservation with the front desk at a time. The staff will set it up with you during check-in.)

They give you a cute little card that says ‘please don’t take my food away I’m still eating oh no’

From the front desk’s suggestion, we had a reservation for the 9:30AM bus toward Murodo as the second to last bus before the morning crowd arrives from Toyama. An uneventful, yet winding, 20 minutes later, we’ve passed through the snow wall and arrived at Murodo.

Murodo (室堂)

Murodo itself isn’t particularly notable - think of a midrange ski lodge and that’s what the vibes are. A lobby with information on various bus departures, stairs up to trails in the area, and a ton of people. Hotel Tateyama is located here (and probably is very similar in every aspect to the Midagahara Hotel), but it also tends to be a bit more expensive and a bit more busy than the latter. Murodo Station also has a limited number of small coin lockers to drop off our luggage while we wandered around. There are also things to see in this area including an onsen a short walk past Mikurika Pond (ミクリガ池), though with all the snow it just looked like an expanse of white. A very beautiful expanse, but no pond to be found. There also once was a trail that allowed you to view geothermal activity at Jigokudani, but with a buildup of toxic gases recently, access is now limited.

There are peeps set up with the usual tourist thing of helping you take a photo, but they’ll take a photo on your cell phone for free. (We still bought a print from them though since it was relatively cheap. I guess we got got.)

Anyways, the reason people are here until early June is to walk the Alpine route along the Snow Wall. While we arrived relatively early in the season, the snow has already melted a bit, so it isn’t at its highest point, but it was still a good 15 meters high. As expected, even on a weekday morning, there were still already a good number of people out and about.

It’s virtually impossible to get a clean shot without staying at the Hotel Tateyama and getting up frightfully early. And even then, there are probably dozens of people with the same idea. Set your expectations low and just enjoy the experience (even with all the people). Similarly, don’t be one of Those People and block people’s way so you can get your Instagram shot

While the snow wall is quite long, the walk itself doesn’t run the whole length. As a result, it’s not too hard at least to get a photo with the sign at the end pointing to the highest point. People do queue up though to get their photo.

There are other snow-related activities that go on simultaneously with the snow walk, including a snow maze.

Snow ostrich cosplay, where you hide from your problems

Back to the terminal building, there is a small post office here that you can send mail with the Murodo/Tateyama cancel stamp, if that is your thing to collect. (As usual, it’s also fine to buy postcards, find the souvenir stamppad, and just cover the back with stamps without any writing. Yep. Art.) There’s also a small soba shop that is focused on just serving you efficient and relatively cheap yet decent soba. We stopped here briefly while waiting for the bus onwards to the next point.

Thankfully, if you have the JR Option ticket for the route, you don’t have to deal with ticket lines and reservations - you can just line up as standby for the next available vehicle. In our case, since we started our trek from the mountain before people had a chance to make it up, it was relatively smooth sailing throughout.

From Murodo, you take the Tateyama Tunnel Trolleybus under Mount Tate to Daikanbou (大観峰). As its name implies, the entire line is underground, so there really isn’t a view to be seen on the way. A fun interesting fact is that this is the only trolleybus line left in Japan, and the only right-hand drive trolleybus line in the world.. Given the fate of what used to be the only other trolleybus line (also along the Kurobe Alpine Route), I wouldn’t be surprised if they switch the buses to be plain EVs, but, that’s just my transit nerd side talking. Another neat effect is that trolleybuses in Japan are still considered to be rail transport, so it is also the only railway running in Japan without tracks.

Daikanbo (大観峰)

While not as high up as Murodo along the route, Daikanbo Station offers a great view toward Kurobe Lake via a few flights of stairs. Expect to be here a while as this is the bottleneck of the route as you wait for the Tateyama Ropeway. Other than the scenery, Daikanbo mainly functions as a transfer point for the ropeway.

The classic ‘wait for the ropeway car to show up’ shot.

The Tateyama Ropeway is some 1.7 kilometers long, and there are no pylons in between - that is, the whole thing is suspended by just the two anchor points at the stations. Try to time your place in the line so you can get a window view out! However, because there is just two cars running at any given time, the lines to tend to be long.

Kurobe Dam (黒部ダム)

After getting off at Kurobedaira Station (黒部平駅), you transfer again to another funicular line. This station does have a pretty good soft-serve shop (okay, it’s not particularly remarkable, but it’s just quite good). There’s also a larger observation deck here, but it doesn’t give as a wide of a view as the deck at Daikanbo Station.

soft serve soft serve soft serve

The ride down the funicular is relatively short, but it’s also the only completely underground cable car in Japan. (Read: it isn’t affected by snowfall, but don’t expect the windows to show you exciting things.)

stairs stairs stairs stairs

At Kurobeko Station (黒部湖駅), you get real Evil Villain Lair vibes — after all, you’re in a truck-sized concrete tunnel lit by just flourescent lights. A short walk brings you out to the dam itself.

the climb up to the observation deck is definitely a trek.

Kurobe Dam was built between 1956 and 1963, and is 492 meters long and 186 meters high. It’s Japan’s tallest dam, and one of its most popular hydroelectric features, similar to how Hoover Dam is popular for US peeps. During the summer, the dam occasionally opens its floodgates to create a spectacular display of discharge water. The route takes you across the dam’s top, where you can get views of the gorge on one side, and the reservoir on the other. The foliage is also said to be spectacular here in fall in late September to mid October.

While we were crossing the dam, a Japanese couple asked if we can help them get a photo on the dam by the sign that marks its center. They offered to do the same for us, so we happily took their offer. They were very amused.

Turning back toward where we came from, the concrete structures in the hillside really do resemble a bunker of kinds.

To be fair we were taking silly photos like this so I’m not sure why they would be surprised.

The visitor center and whatnot are located on the other side of the dam, as well as (very limited) numbers of coin lockers. Seeing the dozens of flights of stairs ahead, we first quickly dropped off our things again before exploring the area. There are stairs down to the old observation deck, now renamed Rainbow Terrace for seeing the rainbows created by the spray of water as it is discharged. Since it was still too early for that, we decided to just directly climb up to the new observatory (and it was definitely a climb). The top observatory gives you a high enough view to get the entire dam in a photo, and has a small souvenir shop and cafe for all your dam food needs. Dam curry? Check. Dam soft serve? Check. Dam mascot keychains? Check.

When you go up, you must go down. The interior path does take you past a few natural springs, where you can try out the famous Kurobe Alpine water for free.

After picking up our things again from the locker, we took the final leg out via the Kanden Tunnel electric bus line. The tunnel was originally built to facilitate the construction of the dam, and was opened for public use afterwards (as ordered by the government). As the 6 kilometer tunnel was just a single lane for the most part, it first ran as a trolleybus before moving to standard electric buses in 2019. During this ride, which (again) mostly happens underground, you pass bright signs that mark the prefecture border between Nagano and Toyama, as well as blue lights that indicate where there was a fracture during tunnel construction and took many months to fix. In the end, you emerge at Ogisawa Station (扇沢駅), which is just a visitor’s center and parking area for tourists who drive in. Buses that connect from here to Nagano, while covered by the JR Option ticket, don’t run frequently, so make sure to keep your time into account.

I mean, you get to wear the bus driver hat(s) and get your standard cutout commemorative photo! It was worth it to miss our bus by 3 minutes!! If you hate money and want to get out fast, there is a taxi standard with standardized fares to major points including Nagano. It only costs a cool 19,170 JPY, no biggie.

While we chose to take the bus to Nagano to return to Tokyo via the Shinkansen, many people opt for the bus to Shinano-Omachi Station (信濃大町駅) for the hot springs and a trip onwards to Matsumoto. It is definitely a route worth considering if you have time!

Food

立山そば @ Nakaniikawa District, Toyama Prefecture, Japan
〒930-1414 富山県中新川郡立山町 室堂ターミナル1階
Review Unpretentious and fast, the small shop offers (standing only) soba with mountain greens. Simple, not terribly expensive (about 750 to 950 yen a bowl), and tastes decent. It opens in the morning, and last order is at 14:45. You get kamaboko with a small ‘Tateyama’ printed on it.
Verdict: 4/5 — Nothing fancy, but it’s fast and good.

Additional Notes

We went during Snow Wall season, which is one of the busiest times of the year along this route. It actually also means a lot of the trails are closed due to snowfall. Since it doesn’t get very hot at such a high altitude here, travel during the summer and fall have its own unique sights and you can enjoy the greenery or autumn foliage with a smaller crowd size. Accordingly, it may be worth extending your time on this route as well if you are planning to do hikes.