Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Experience

Saturday afternoon after we left Mina, we made our way over to Toyama. We arrived there late in the evening after coming down from the mountains and going cross country on the trains.

 

I love the trains. They are easy to get around on, they come often and they are usually very comfortable! Doug gets around on them so well, he is right at home! You can tell he had done this before!

 

it is so fun to interact with the Japanese people while riding the train. This is a school basketball team that were traveling home from a game together on the train.

 

 

Up early Sunday morning, we went to church in Toyama. It was great to be with the members. We had an interpreter that was an older woman who grew up in Hawaii but now works in Japan. She was so interested in us and just loved having someone to talk English with. She was very impressed with Doug's Japanese! The Primary children sang 'I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus' in Sacrament meeting, it was so touching to see those children singing that song in Japanese.

It's a funny thing in Japan that one of the only places you can get money from an ATM is a 7-11 store. It is called a '7 bank', and it accepts foreign cards. We were running low on Japanese money, so we hired a cab to take us to the nearest 7-11 store. He kindly did so, but the '7 bank' just kept rejecting our cards. It wasn't until the cab driver came in to the store to help us talk with the cashier, that we found out that '7 banks' don't operate on Sundays!!

Well, we went back to the train station and talked with someone at the information desk, she indicated that the Main Post Office has 24 hour ATM service for foreign cards. We were thrilled!! Luckily, we were back on track and soon found ourselves travelling on the train across rural Japan to Tateyama. Often in the fields, we would see monuments to dead ancestors, always to be remembered!

In Tateyama, there is an Alpine Route that starts here that Doug wanted to take. We arrived here and stayed over, planning to start the route the next day...it takes a full day, about 7 hours. To complete. We got settled in before dark and were able to enjoy the beautiful mountain surroundings of this little village.

 

 

We had reservations at the Senjuso Ryokan, and we were thrilled that it was an old style Japanese Inn.

Everything was very traditional! Our room only had tatami mats and a futon to sleep on, with a shared toilet and bath.

 

 

We were given slippers to wear inside, and special 'toilet slippers' when using the bathroom! The Inn had six rooms on two levels and it was just like a Japanese 'Bed and Breakfast, where we shared bathroom facilities and meals together, but had our own room. We didn't see anyone else except at meals, and they were all very quiet and polite Japanese guests, occasionally Doug had a chance to speak with someone, but rarely.

 

Our meals, dinner and breakfast were served with all of the elements of a traditional Japanese meal. Miso soup, sushi, shiitake mushroom salad, egg sushi and fresh Japanese apples! It was all very delicious and true..."first you feast with your eyes!" Our host was so amazing!

The town was so quaint and quiet, we went out for an evening walk, but we were the only ones out and about.

Doug thought it was his turn to drive the train, but somehow couldn't get it to move! They carry supplies up the mountain in this train.

We were up early Monday morning, and excited to start on the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route! What is so interesting and famous about this Alpine Route is that you use eight different methods of transportation during your trip through these Northern Japanese Alps!

We started by taking the Tateyama cablecar, which was just 100 metres from our little Inn. It chugged up the mountain to Bijordaira, gaining about 500 metres. We then were escorted to a bus that continued up the mountain to Murado, another gain of 500 meters.

We stayed and hiked around here and enjoyed the view for about an hour. One trail was closed because of recent volcanic activity. We could see the steam coming off the rocks and could smell the sulphur in the air.

We then went through the Tateyama Tunnel on a trolley bus, completely encased by cement, so amazing how these things were built! We arrived in Daikanbo, at 2316 meters, looking down on the Kurobe Lake.

We then took the Tateyama Ropeway down to Kurobedaira at 1828 metres.

 

 

Then, a fun experience was taking the Kurobe cablecar down to the Kurobe Dam. It went right down into that cement tunnel and came out at the top of the dam.

 

Arriving at the Dam, we walked the half kilometer across it . The Dam is so gorgeous with it's beautiful water shooting out, surrounded by magnificent mountains, we enjoyed just being there!

It was built from 1956-1963. It took over 420,000 men to build it!! The Kurobe Dam is the tallest Dam in Japan, and it cost the country $51 billion to make! Sadly, 171 men died during the project!

After our time on the Dam, we took the Kanden trolley bus down to the little town of Ogizawa, which sits at 1433 metres. Our last leg of the trip was on a local bus to a town called Shinano-Omachi, where we caught the train and travelled for two hours to Nagano, where we are staying for the night.

It was an amazing day spent on The Tateymaya Kurobe Alpine Trail. It was fun to watch the Japanese people enjoying this part of their country. A favorite part of our trip, beside the scenery, was the 'black sesame' ice cream that was to die for!!