Mikurigaike Pond Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Mikurigaike Pond**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

[Introduction]

Today will be a full-day excursion to Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, as per our pre-trip planning we already knew that we can’t cover all the areas in a 1-day trip, sadly missing out on Midagahara and Bijodaira area.

As the earliest express bus from Nagano is departing at 7.50am and will arrive Ogizawa at 9.25am. By around 3.30pm at Murodo, we have started our descend of the mountain, cause the last transport is at 4.20pm departing Murodo during this season to get on the next few connections down the mountain.

Unless you are a touch and go person, ie. 30 minutes only for each area (including lunch), then you probably could cover all the areas. Else wise, if you want to cover all the areas you will need to stay at least 1 night at one of the mountain’s hotels.

Overall, even though we can’t manage to see all the areas of the mountain, but this day trip is the highlight of our entire Japan trip, Murudo was spectacular!

[Trip Report]
Day 1: Explore around Nagano
Day 2: Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route [current post]
Day 3: Matsumoto Castle, Nakamachi District, Matsumoto City Museum of Art and night exploring around Nagano
Day 4: Nagano Zenkoji Temple and Kanazawa Higashi Chaya District
Day 5: Shirakawago
Day 6: Hida-Takayama, Hida-Furukawa, and “Your Name” location spots
Day 7: Kanazawa Omicho Market, Kenrokuen Garden, and Kanazawa Castle Park
Day 8: Explore around Osaka
Day 9: Osaka Shinsekai, Tempozan Ferris Wheel, Glion Museum, and Cosmo Tower Observatory
Day 10: Osaka Castle, Gozabune Boat, HEP FIVE Ferris Wheel, and Kuchu Teien Observatory
Day 11: Kyoto Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Kinkakuji, and Yasaka Shrine
Day 12: Osaka Dotonbori, Kaiyukan, and Shinsekai
Day 13: Kyoto Fushimi Inari, Ginkakuji, and Arashiyama
Day 14: Okayama Korakuen, Okayama Castle, and Kojima Jeans Street
Day 15: Miyajima
Day 16: Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park, Peace Memorial Museum
Day 17: Yufuin
Day 18: Hakata Ohori Park, Fukuoka Castle Ruins, and Fukuoka Tower
Day 19: Nanzoin Temple

[Travel Date]
2019-10-27 to 2019-11-14

Alpico Express Bus Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Alpico Express Bus**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

[Main Content]

Woke up early and went to a combini (convenient store) to get some onigiri and canned coffee for a quick breakfast, and off we go to the bus pick up point at Nagano Station to our first point of Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route which is Ogizawa.

Partial Cross Section of Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Partial Cross Section of Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

[Image credit to Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route website]

Attached partial cross section of Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route so it will be easier to reference visually.

You can start from either ends, Nagano to Toyama, or Toyama to Nagano, for my case it is the former.

Summary of the route for this day trip (time spent at each area are rough estimation as I can’t recall exactly already):

Nagano to Ogizawa via Alpico Express Bus
Ogizawa to Kurobe Dam via Kanden Tunnel Electric Bus
Spent about 1 hour exploring Kurobe Dam
Kurobe Dam to Kurobeko via walking
Kurobeko to Kurobedaira via Kurobe Cable Car
Spent about 45 minutes exploring Kurobedaira
Kurobedaira to Daikanbo via Tateyama Ropeway
Spent about 15 minutes exploring Daikanbo
Daikanbo to Murodo via Tatayama Tunnel Trolley Bus
Spent about 30 minutes for lunch, and 2.5 hours exploring Murodo
Murodo to Bijodaira (skipping Tengudaira and Midagahara) via Tateyama Highland Bus
Bijodaira to Tateyama Station via Tateyama Cable Car
Tateyama Station to Dentetsu Toyama Station via Toyama Chihou Railway

Kurobe Dam Station Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Kurobe Dam Station**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Kurobe Dam Resthouse Observatory Deck Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Kurobe Dam Resthouse Observatory Deck**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Kurobe Dam Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Kurobe Dam**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Lake Kurobe Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Lake Kurobe**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

[Kurobe Dam]

Upon alighting the Kanden Tunnel Electric Bus, you have to climb up quite a number of stairs to reach up the Kurobe Dam Guesthouse. Me and wife are definitely panting 3/4 way through it (showing how unfit we are).

But we are rewarded with the great scenery once we reach the top, which is the observatory deck of the Kurobe Dam Resthouse. We took quite a number of photos of the surrounding scenery at this viewpoint.

After that, we have to descend the stairs and proceed to walk across the Kurobe Dam to reach Kurobeko Station.

Kurobeko Station Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Kurobeko Station**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Walked to Kurobeko Station from Kurobe Dam, now going to join the queue for the Kurobe Cable Car to Kurobedaira.

Kurobeko station also have quite a number of seats for people who needs to rest.

Once passed the ticketing gate, we climbed some flight of stairs to wait at the cable car platform area.

Cable car arrived! Also a no flash sign to inform people that are taking photos.

View from the Kurobedaira Observatory Deck Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **View from the Kurobedaira Observatory Deck**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

[Kurobedaira]

After alighting the cable car, we went straight up to the Kurobedaira Observatory Deck, absolutely loved what we are seeing and feeling!

It has a very open space and vast scenery (mountain ranges, lake, nature in different colours) to take in. Weather for that day and at that area was great, albeit too great that it is too sunny, in some photos you can feel there’s a layer of white “haze” but intact it is that area that is too sunny that caused a layer of overexposure.

At the ground level, there is the Kurobedaira Park, but I didn’t take much photos, mainly just family photos of that location.

By the way, the grey housing in the center of the above photo is Daikanbo Station, which is our next stop!

View from the Daikanbo Observatory Deck Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **View from the Daikanbo Observatory Deck**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Queueing for the Tateyama Tunnel Trolley Bus Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Queueing for the Tateyama Tunnel Trolley Bus**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

[Daikanbo]

We planned not to spend much time at all for this area, so be able to allocate more time for the main highlight which is Murodo.

So went directly to the observatory deck after arriving at Daikanbo, to see a quick overview of the scenery and of course I have to take some photos too.

Then we went to queue for the Tateyama Tunnel Trolley Bus heading towards Murodo.

Toyama Deep Fried Pork Curry Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Toyama Deep Fried Pork Curry**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Toyama Deep Fried Pork Set Meal Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Toyama Deep Fried Pork Set Meal**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Menu Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Menu**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

[Lunch at Murodo]

Had lunch at Hotel Tateyama, food was average, but one wouldn’t be expecting awesome food at that area anyways. More of a quick lunch and a having a short rest at the same time.

After lunch, it’s time for the highlight of the trip, the hike around Murodo.

Too nice of a scenery to pass up for a couple shot Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Too nice of a scenery to pass up for a couple shot**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Murudo Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Murudo**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Map of Murudo area Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Map of Murudo area**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Just for your information, we did the simple round hike which is route D (orange colour).

Snow remains on plants Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Snow remains on plants**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Walking trails at Murudo Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Walking trails at Murudo**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Mikurigaike Pond and Mikurigaike Onsen Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Mikurigaike Pond and Mikurigaike Onsen**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Mikurigaike Onsen Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Mikurigaike Onsen**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Definitely a must take photo spot at Mikurigaike Pond Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Definitely a must take photo spot at Mikurigaike Pond**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Jigokudani (Hell’s Valley) Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Jigokudani (Hell’s Valley)**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Murodo Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Murodo**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Midorigaike Pond Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Midorigaike Pond**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

I can’t make out what snow animals are these Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **I can’t make out what snow animals are these**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

[Murudo]

If the scenery from my photos doesn’t tell you that it amazes us, the amount of photos for this area should tell you that it really wows us A LOT!

Hands down Murudo is the highlight of our entire trip!

Different sights, colours, layout, lights and shadows can be seen during the simple round hike route of Murudo.

We really wanted to stay longer and see more, but have to catch the last connection transport back to Toyama.

There’s always next time I guess!

Raicho (Tateyama’s mascot) plush toy Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Raicho (Tateyama’s mascot) plush toy**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

While going over to join the queue for the Tateyama Highland Bus to take us down to Bijodaira Station, we saw the Raicho bird plush toy (which is Tateyama’s mascot) at one of the souvenir stores.

Sea of clouds Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — **Sea of clouds**
Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

[Murudo to Bijodaira]

While on the Tateyama Highland Bus down the mountain, blessed with good luck and weather, we saw an awesome sunset among the sky and sea of clouds.

The only thing to top this is to view and experience it physically on the spot and take it all in for that 15-30 minutes during the sunset. Maybe next time if I ever come back again, I will do at least a night stay here, so I could do this.

But I digress, the driver was kind enough to slow down at some spots for the passengers to view it longer too.

Once we reached Bijodaira, we have to make another transit via Tateyama Cable Car to go to Tateyama Station, where we will take the last transit of this trip that is Toyama Chihou Railway to Toyama city.

Shiroebitei Toyama — **Shiroebitei**
Toyama

[Dinner at Shiroebitei]

After a long and slow ride (approx 65-70 minutes) on the Toyama Chihou Railway departing from Tateyama Station, we finally arrived at Dentetsu Toyama Station.

Totally famished, we head straight to the mall and joined the queue at Shiroebitei! One of the popular restaurants that serve Shiroebi (White Shrimp) aka “the jewel of Toyama Bay” which is the local delicacy of Toyama.

Do click on the link for the detailed review and full photos.

Toyama JR Station Toyama — **Toyama JR Station**
Toyama

[Toyama Station]

After dinner, its time to catch our Shinkansen ride back to Nagano Station via Kagayaki 518 (fastest train type on Hokuriku Line).

Kagayaki 518 Shinkansen Toyama — **Kagayaki 518 Shinkansen**
Toyama

Ramen Misoya Nagano — **Ramen Misoya**
Nagano

[Supper at Ramen Misoya]

Upon arriving back to Nagano, we went for some grocery shopping at Donki which is located conveniently opposite our hotel. Donki is so important for a cheaper price for water and snacks (and daily essentials)!

We felt a bit hungry after the shopping and relatively light dinner (for a full day Tatayama Kurobe Alpine Route excursion), so we decided to have supper at Ramen Misoya nearby!

Do click on the link for the detailed review and full photos.

View from the hotel room Nagano — **View from the hotel room**
Nagano

[Closing]

After a yummy supper, its time to rest and prepare for the day trip to Matsumoto tomorrow!

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Japan 2019 Trip Day 2: Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route