The day after arriving in Toyama was our long trek on the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. This is a really popular mountain sightseeing route which spans across two Prefectures – from Tateyama in Toyama to Omachi in Nagano. While the route itself is only 37km in length, it reaches elevations of 2,500m at the highest point. There’s also seven different forms of public transportation you need to take to get across the route. It was definitely the most transfers I’ve done in a single day!

To start our journey, we first took the train over to Tateyama Station. However, since it had rained heavily a few days before, there were a few mud/landslides which blocked the tracks towards Tateyama. Once we got to the second last station on the line, we had to switch over to a shuttle bus to take us the rest of the way to Tateyama Station.

After arriving at Tateyama Station, we had to wait in line with the hordes of tourists waiting to buy tickets for the cable car towards Bijodaira. Again, due to the inclement weather, the cable cars weren’t running that day. Instead, we were loaded onto buses which would take us directly to our first stop on the route, Murodo.

It took about an hour before we finally arrived at Murodo. Murodo is the highest point on the mountain so the entire area was partially covered by clouds. There were also patches of snow which were left from the previous winter, so it was very picturesque. Once we got off the bus we started our hike towards Mikurigaike Pond. It was actually an easy hike. I thought initially I might get altitude sickness but I had no problems making to the pond and back. It was breathtaking seeing how serene and tranquil the pond was.

Before we headed back down, we stopped by a restaurant to grab some lunch. I got an order of another of Toyama’s specialty – Toyama black ramen. It tasted like any other ramen I’d had haha.

After lunch we started our descent towards Daikanbo. Our next mode of transportation was the trolley bus. I think it was my first time taking a trolley bus through a tunnel in the mountain, so it was definitely a memorable experience. The ride itself was relatively short, then we had to switch over to the ropeway to take it down to Kurobedaira.

The ropeway was pretty neat because it spans 1.7km and it’s the only ropeway in Japan without any support in between the path. You can definitely get the full panoramic view inside the car (granted if there were less people inside haha).

We spent some time at the observatory decks at Kurobedaira before we took the cable car down towards Kurobeko. Once we arrived we followed the path which led us directly over top the Kurobe Dam. Once we made it across, we climbed up 220 steps to get up to the Dam Observation Deck. The stairs were a little tiring but the view from above was absolutely gorgeous.

When we were finally ready to leave, we took another trolley bus back down towards Ogisawa Station, then finally a local bus to Shinano Omachi station. Then we had to take another train which would finally get us to Matsumoto Station for the evening. I think in total we took 9 different kinds of public transportation that day. It was a little insane but I’m so glad we made all our connections or else we would have been left stranded on the mountain. =P

We were pretty much spent after arriving in Matsumoto. Luckily my sister had picked out a restaurant she wanted to try so we didn’t have to spend too much time finding a place to eat. The restaurant we went to was called Torishin and its specialty was yakitori. We were lucky we got the last seats at the counter cause the place was already packed. We didn’t really have an idea of what to order so we let the chefs recommend dishes for us. Everything we got was absolutely delicious and I especially enjoyed the raw chicken dish they gave us. It was so good I almost wanted to go back there for our second night. =D