Kurobe Tateyama Alpine Pass

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Kurobe Tateyama Alpine Pass

After saying goodbye to the family early in the morning, Makiko's father dropped me off at Ougizawa station where I was to embark on my journey for the day - the Kurobe Tateyama Alpine Pass finishing up in the Toyama.

The Alpine Pass is a combination of electric trolley buses, walking, cable cars and trains to travel through a mount range and over the highest Mt Tateyama, and then down over the other side. Its a unique way to see areas of the Japanese Alps that are not accessible via any other means.

The first stop is reached via electric trolley bus that cuts through the middle of a mountain and ends at Kurobe Dam, an absolutely massive dam 1470 metres above sea level that took years to build and apparently resulted in a lot of lives being lost in the process. I'm not sure the photos do it justice but the force of the water being pumped out was incredible. The scenery around the dam was also quite spectacular.

After a 10 minute walk across the dam, a cable car, then a ropeway and another trolley bus, the highest point of the Alpine pass is reached. This is at Murodo, 2450 metres above sea level, near the top of Mt Tateyama. The scenery here is really beautiful, with much of the plant life turning various shades of orange and red as autumn comes.

After Murodo its downhill via a bus through the winding mountain side roads, another cablecar and finally a local train. After several hours, I reached the small city of Toyama, where I bunked down in a hotel for the night in readiness for my flight to Sapporo the following day.

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