Yep, that’s a whole lot of snow.
Last April the Japanese Heisei emperor stepped down from the throne, the first time in over two hundred years a Japanese emperor has abdicated. This was momentous for a few reasons, one of which was that it occurred during the Golden Week holiday season, with the extra holidays from the emperor’s abdication giving everyone in Japan ten consecutive days off. Score!
I spent part of the vacation traversing the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route, a mountain route connecting Toyama prefecture (where I live) with Nagano prefecture in the southeast. Normally the only way to reach Nagano is by traveling north around the massive Hida Mountain range that separates the two, but the Tateyama Alpine Route connects them more directly via a series of cable cars, buses, electric trolleys, and a brief walking route, shown on the map below.
The route sounds crazy confusing because you have to make eight separate transfers in the mountains at a series of stations. I spent a lot of time researching each part of the route and made sure to write everything down, only to discover that the constant color-coded English signage along the way made it impossible to get lost. Sadly, though, the entire trip was also a madhouse of wall-to-wall people where there was nowhere to sit and rest and I had to fight for spots in every bus and cable car.
Yeah, it was pretty crowded. If you go, I recommend avoiding holidays and weekends, or going in the summer or fall. April and May are popular times because that’s when you can see the Murodo Snow Wall, a 10+ foot wall of snow along the side of the mountain road that’s higher than the buses driving down it. It was more snow than I’d ever seen anywhere in one place (and in May, no less!), though sadly it rained during that portion of the trip and the mountain pass was so crowded I decided to just continue on rather than explore it.
Though most people cite the Snow Wall as the highlight of the Alpine Route, for me the best part was seeing Kurobe Dam. By this time the rain had cleared up and there were fewer crowds on this end of the route, so I had more space to myself to explore and admire the scenery.
Kurobe Dam is the tallest dam in Japan, and one of the most famous, partly because a staggering 171 people died during its construction in the late 1950s. It was by far the largest dam I’ve ever visited, and the massive stone structures built into the mountain made it a sight to behold.
After the Alpine Route I continued on to Yamanashi, where I lived during my first stay in Japan, and spent a day at Shosenkyo Gorge just north of Kofu. It’s another of the most beautiful gorges in Japan, and being back for the first time in so long was wonderfully nostalgic. The Sengataki waterfall is one of the park’s highlights, and appears tranquil here nestled among the trees and rocks.
Last May I also visited Kamikochi in northern Nagano, one of Japan’s most famous national parks. Often called the Japanese Yosemite, there’s a mild hike that traverses most of the valley and has some amazing views of the mountains above, suitable for all ages and skill levels.
We stopped here along the river for coffee and a snack. Though the valley was clear, there was still plenty of snow in the mountains, even in May.
Peaceful mountain pond in Kamikochi.
This moment ranks among the cutest things I’ve ever seen. Kamikochi was full of monkeys playing along the paths, and they’d long-ago lost their fear of humans. It was my first time seeing wild monkeys in Japan, with plenty of smaller ones scampering along.
We ended the day by snacking on onsen eggs, regular eggs that have been (partly) hard-boiled in natural hot spring water from the mountains. We ate them outside by the spring and dropped the shells into the bowls in the wooden box. I’m not a big fan of undercooked eggs, and though the whites on these were mostly cooked through, the center yolk was still liquid and I had to gulp it down. Bottoms up!
If you want to see more pics from my Japan Adventures series, you can check them out here.
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