Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route (立山黒部アルペンルート Tateyama Kurobe Arupen Rūto) is a sightseeing route between Tateyama, Toyama and Ōmachi, Nagano, Japan.

In order to build the Kurobe Dam, opened in 1963 and at 186 meters still the tallest in Japan, a tunnel 5.4 km long was dug under Mount Tate (Tateyama). Sensing an opportunity, the Tateyama Kurobe Kankō (TKK) company was set up to turn this into a tourist attraction, stringing together a series of cable cars, aerial lifts and buses into a 37-km path across and through the mountains.

The route has an official multilingual site.

Due to the high altitude (over 2,400 m at Murodō), it can be cold up top, but it depends on the season and conditions: April lows are below freezing and even in midsummer having only 15°C is not that rare - but then it's also possible that it will be that sunny and warm enough on the top of the route in May, that you'll only need a wool cardigan and won't even need a jacket. But it's better to be prepared for the cold. It's also just high enough to potentially trigger altitude sickness for some people, although this is unlikely to manifest as anything more severe than a headache and feeling out of breath easily.

If you came unprepared and are afraid it will be too cold - there are shops at both ends of the route which sell various warm clothes like jackets, gloves and stuff like that, and they are not that expensive - so there is possibly no need to bundle up beforehand. But then the cheapest jacket there will still cost 3x (20000 yen) than you'd find in Uniqlo in big cities (6000 yen).

The main cities near the termini are Toyama to the west and Matsumoto to the east. By train, Toyama can be reached from Tokyo in about two hours on the Hokuriku Shinkansen, while Matsumoto is about 2½ hours from Tokyo on the Super Azusa express. From Osaka, Toyama can be reached on the direct Thunderbird express (3½ hours), while Matsumoto can be reached after changing trains in Nagoya (total 4 hours).

If you go from the east side, you'll most likely have to take a bus from Shinano-Omachi, which is reachable by a train from Matsumoto. The bus will take you to the beginning of the route at Ogisawa Station, and the road will take around 30 minutes, will cost ¥2000, if it's not purchased in a bundle with the Alpine Route ticket - in this case you don't have to get anything from a ticket office, you'll just have to show the webpage with QR code and the sign that you've bought the tickets to the bus driver.

Buses depart from the bus stop on the south of the square by the Shinano-Ōmachi train station. There is a fixed schedule which you can find on Google Maps, it's quite correct there, and there is also a schedule posted on the ticket office by the station itself. Most people arrive at bus stop 5-10 minutes before departure, and it's likely that there will be not enough seats on the bus, especially for those who arrived close to the departure time - but in that case other passengers will be taken by a second bus, so nobody will left stranded.

Plan your departure time from there in advance, as bus will take around 30 minutes to get to Ogisawa. If you take a bus at 7:05, you will comfortably make it to the Alpine Route entrance on 8:00, especially so for a 8:30 ticket time.

Driving across the Alpine Route is not permitted. Tateyama Traffic^{[dead link]} can deliver your car to the other end, but they have to do it the long way around (~200 km) and this costs a stiff ¥26,000.

As private transportation is neither permitted nor possible, the only ways to cross from Tateyama to Ōgisawa are the official TKK route, or a lengthy and demanding multi-day trek. Open from mid-April to November (the exact dates vary yearly based on snow conditions), the official route consists of:

All modes of transport run every 20-40 minutes, roughly 07:00-17:00. However, at peak times, notably the April-May snow season and in particular during the Golden Week holidays (April 29-May 5), waiting times of over an hour are not uncommon.

Tickets are sold based on the number of stages traveled, and once purchased are valid for up to five days. As an indication, Toyama to Murodō is ¥3,630 one-way, while the full whack from Toyama to Shinano-Omachi is a steep ¥9,140 one-way.

Due to the number of transfers and amount of walking around (which can be not that much if you want it to, as there are only two places where you have to walk for some time - on the dam and on the top of the route - and all the hiking on the top is optional), carting about heavy bags is not recommended, and in some way, makes some parts of experiencing the Alpine Route impossible (like hiking to see the views on the top), but fortunately all accommodations on route will be happy to arrange next-day takkyubin pick up and delivery at around ¥2000 to/from Tokyo/Osaka for a suitcase under 25 kg.

• 36.5676137.5361 Yuki no Ōtani (雪の大谷), Murodo. The "Valley of Snow" is one of the Alpine Route's top sights: a bus route carved into a veritable mountain of compacted snow, reaching up to 14 meters at its highest point. It's in full form from April to late May, and melts away during the summer.  (updated Feb 2015)

• 36.56642137.662122 Kurobe Dam (黒部ダム). The route's raison d'être, and still an awe-inspiring sight. Behind the dam lies Kurobe-ko (黒部湖), the lake it created.  (updated Feb 2015)

There are plenty of hiking opportunities in the summer and fall, including an ascent of Mount Tate itself, but most likely the main activity for the most visitors there will be walking around the fields on the top of the route as there are quite a lot of paths - admiring the scenery around. And of course there you'll see one of the main places on all the route - the Snow Wall (with a lot of people making photos there).

Apart from that - there will be a part with the dam, where you will be able to walk around and see the views too (and maybe buy one of many dam-themed souvenirs with their mascot in a gift shop by the dam), but the dam and fields on the top are the only places where you'll be able to properly walk around for some tome - all other points and parts of the route is mostly moving on the various transport from one place to another (which is an experience in its own way as well).

There are plenty souvenir shops on the way on the most stops, the biggest one being on the top of the route in the place where the Snow Wall is - there you can find pretty much anything related to the Alpine Route: clothes, postcards, toys, pins, all sorts of gifts.

At the both sides of the route there are shops which sell warm clothes too, in case you didn't get there prepared enough.

There are several cafes and small restaurants in the middle of the route on the stop with the Snow Wall, and while they are not really a high-grade restaurants and prices are higher than in usual Japanese cities due to logistics - you can have a lunch there.

There are several hotels along the route itself, but these are all 1970s-era concrete behemoths and they're pricy due to the complicated logistics needed to supply them. Most visitors opt to day-trip or stay in the towns at either end.

• Ryokusitei Keisui (緑翠亭景水), Oomachi Onsen-kyo, Oomachi-shi, Nagano-ken, 398-0001, ☏ +81-261-22-5501, fax: +81-261-22-5418. Check-in: 15:00, check-out: 10:00. Located at the entrance of Tateyama Kurobe Alpen Route. 

• Mount Tate