Tateyama, also known as the roof of Japan is a must to visit, especially during April to July of each year if you wish to see the snow corridor. The 90km route goes through the lush greenery of Mt. Tateyama in the Northern Japan Alps as it spans from Toyama City in Toyama prefecture, up yo Omachi Town in Nagano Prefecture.
We were expected to travel up Mt Tateyama yesterday but thanks to the pouring rain, we ended travelling from Toyama to Matsumoto which we had booked our accommodation much earlier. Hence, we had boarded the earliest train bound from Matsumoto to Toyama again, the gateway to Mt. Tateyama.
Since its opening in 1971, the path comprises of several stops or stations, with Murodo Station as the highest at 2,450m high, and can be traversed on various vehicles such as buses, cable cars and ropeways.
Basically, we took the train from Toyama Dentetsu Station to Mt. Tateyama and then transferred to a funicular to travel before transferring to a bus to go all the way up to Murodo Station. Along the way, I was mesmerized by the stunning scenic views before me. As the bus turned and turned ( a total of 7 turns) along the winding road, we finally reached our destination within 50mins.
The star attraction during the season was none other than the snow wall corridor (Yuki-no-Otani) which opens from mid-April to June after months of heavy snowfall.
"Tateyama experiences one of the heaviest snowfalls worldwide. On average, there is about 7 m (or 23 ft) of snow that accumulates every year, but in the area near the wall, there are times that are up to 20m of snow that would accumulate due to snowdrifts. To expel this heavy snow, this famous "Snow Wall" was then born.
We visited during late May and hence the walls were about 17m high. At that height, I was already in utter awe of its beauty; so you could just imagine the magnificent height if we were to visit in early April where we can get to witness it in its full glory, though I would expect the place to be crowded in April due to the cherry blossom season.
Running from Bijodaira to Murodo, we get to first witness the 1km passage of snow wall in the bus. Once we got off at Murodo Bus Terminal, we were allowed to walk along the 500m long snow corridor and even touched the snow wall which was super hard and solid. Some people even craved pictures, well wishes and even their names onto the snow wall. Surprisingly, the weather was so nice that we had clear blue sky. Hence, our photos turned out exceptionally stunning. Other than the snow corridor, we also had fun snow sledding (which was free). We felt like kids again as we went sledding down the steep slope.
Aside from the snow wall, we can also enjoy a nice stroll along the various hiking trails with varying level of difficulty. It was here that I get to admire the stunning view of Japanes Alps which were equally beautiful as the Swiss Alps. We managed to walk to the frozen crate lake of the Tateyama volcano (also known as Mikurigauke) which was another beautiful attraction at Murodo.
As we walked further, we could smell strong sulphuric that lingers over from the bottom of the mountain - Jigokudani (Hell Valley). However, we didn't walk down further as the snow was too thick for us to access.
We then took the electric bus and then the ropeway to get to Kurobe Dam. The ropeway is a cable car that connects the stations of Daikanbo and Kurobedaira and is said to be one of the most unique cable cars because it is the only one in Japan that operates without any support towers for a span of 1.7km. Riding this ropeway will only take 7 mins but as it was too crowded, I was totally blocked from viewing the panoramic sights as the cable went down.
Kurobe Dam was quite a sight to be seen given that it is the tallest dam in Japan at 186m. According to history, the Kurobe Dam was built across Kurobe Lake for over 7 years and by the time it was completed in 1963, over 171 people have lost their lives die to some problems along the way. Today, it supports a hydropower plant that supplies electricity to the Kansai Region.
As we stood on the bridge looking down at the dam, the wind was howling and strong. I could imagine the harsh conditions faced by the workers in constructing this dam.
Towards the end of the journey, we can choose to either take a bus to Shinano Omachi or Nagano Station. The entire journey through Mt Tateyama was really spectacular and personally, I was pretty much amazed with Japan's technology and engineering skills that created this amazing route to allow us to ascend and capture the beauty of Mt Tateyama with ease. It's really wonderful to venture here at least once when you are in Japan.
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