Japan 2015: Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

The scenic highlight of the trip had finally arrived, we were going to the mountains, where all of our landscape photography dreams would come true, or at least we’d see some nice scenery with mountains. I didn’t realise beforehand how long it took to cover the entire route and it was fortunate that we actually researched it a bit more thoroughly the night before. We ended up waking up at about 6am so that we could get ourselves prepared to leave the hotel and get to the Dentetsu Toyama train station by about 7.20am so that we could get that train to start the route. The plan was basically to get to Murodo as early as possible which would give ourselves almost two hours to spend there before moving on to Kurobe Dam and and returning to Toyama. The timetable was very helpful as was japan guide and the alpen-route web site in general. The three stops before Murodo, Bijodaira, Midagahara, and Tengudaira, all have attractions such as hikes, forests, and waterfalls (Shomyo Falls), but we definitely didn’t have time for those, so we opted to maximise our time at the two easiest stops (we wouldn’t need to reserve spots on transport, etc, etc). We also had to be back in Toyama by approximately 5.30-6pm to have dinner to make sure that the little tyrant wouldn’t get too upset. This is why my recommendation for the route would be to stay for one or two nights in Midagahara or Murodo so that you could spend some time at those earlier stops as well, the nature walks looked really interesting, as well as the hike to the summit of Mount Tateyama from Murodo.

So from Dentetsu Station (right next to Toyama main station) you get a regular old train to Tateyama (which takes approximately an hour) before going on all the other different modes of transport, bus, cable car, trolley bus (through the mountains), rope way, another cable car, and then either returning on the same things, or carrying on to Ogizawa on another trolley bus and rail line. With the number of people there were, you better work out where the front of the lines are if you’re on a tight schedule like we were, we could not afford to miss one mode and be stuck waiting half an hour (or whatever it was) for the next one to come along. Everything was full, there were practically no views (unless you were squished to the window) on the cable cars because they were packed in so tight.

We arrived at Murodo at 10.45 (sharp, amazing thing this Japanese timetabling system), and the weather was very clear, blue skies and fresh, not too warm under the sun (at altitude) and not particularly cool (shorts weather when you’re walking around). The easiest thing to Mikurigaike, there are a few paths around the pond that will give great views of the surrounding mountains with reflections in the pond, alpine flora, and views of other tourists wandering around the area as well. We only had an hour and a half more or less so that’s all we did before heading back to queue up for the transport to Kurobe Dam, we just got in too, actually we missed the first bus, but then they had another bus which we were let on to so we didn’t screw up the schedule.

After going through Daikanbo and then down the rope way to Kurobe Dam, we had about a half hour to walk across the dam wall, have a look and then head back on our way to Toyama. We didn’t have enough time to go to the higher observation point, but did there was enough time to venture to the lower observation deck which had some good views of the flowing water so it wasn’t a total waste, before heading back.

After all that rushing about, thanks to the efficient Japanese transport system, we arrived back in Toyama at exactly the scheduled time and happily had dinner and were back in the hotel to put Oscar down to sleep at a normal time. Once that was all sorted we were able to get his baby sitter (grandma) in and then head back to Toyama station for some sushi at sushidama (sushi train) as a reward, good stuff, nothing wrong with a bit of fatty tuna.

We stayed at the Toyama Manten Hotel which I think I mentioned was a bit of a walk from the station, but not too bad, a bit on the business side, but again quite reasonable, the breakfast buffet was definitely the best one we had on our entire trip, it was also the second most expensive hotel that we stayed at, but apart from the odd shape of the room (which only affected us because of the stroller) everything was nice and dandy like sour candy!

Next, final stop, Tokyo, Shinjuku and Asakusa to be exact, and shopping till we dropped, actually, we didn’t have enough time for that, so we’ll just have to go back and do some more shopping!

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