Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route is, I believe, the best mountain sightseeing route in Japan. You are able to enjoy magnificent and spectacular scenery on the route.

The route is from Tateyama Station to Ohgisawa Bus Stop with 37 kilometers in distance through Mt. Tateyama. The highest altitude on the route is 2,450 meters at Murodo, at the foot of Mt. Tateyama.

Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route cuts across the northern part of the North Japan Alps. The North Japan Alps lies between Nagao Prefecture and Toyama Prefecture, 105 kilometers in length and 25 kilometers in width. Mt. Oku-Hotaka in the North Japan Alps is the third highest mountain in Japan being 3,192 meters in height.

In the northern part of the North Japan Alps, two maintain ranges lie in parallel. "Tateyama" Montain Range lies to the west side and "Ushiro-Tateyama" Range lies to the east side. The Kurobe River flows between these two mountain ranges. Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route cuts across these two mountain ranges.

Midagahara Highland

There are a couple of scenic spots on the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. They are, for example, "Midagahara Highland", "Tateyama Cardera", "Tengu-daira", "Murodo", "Daikanbo" and "Lake Kurobe". You can enjoy mountain and highland scenery.

View of Mt. Tateyama from Murodo

Detailed explanations of each scenic spot will be issued in the page of "Your Destination in Chubu". Also, please refer to the bottom of the page. You will find the links to each of scenic spot on Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route.

On the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route between Tateyama Station and Ohgisawa Bus stop, private vehicles are prohibited. Only public transportation is available. You will take buses, cables cars and a ropeway on the route. In this session, these transportations will be explained.

You can gain access to the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route from both Tateyama Station and Ohgisawa Bus Stop. To Tateyama Station, you can take a Toyama Local Railway train on the Tateyama Line. The terminal station of Toyama Local Railway train is Dentetsu-Toyama, located next to JR Toyama Station. It is a five minute walk.

Toyama Local Railway runs a train from Dentetsu-Toyama Station to Tateyama Station approximately once every hour. It takes about one hour and train fare is 1,080 yen as of October 2017. The entire fare from Dentetsu-Toyama to Shinano Ohmachi Station is 10,850 yen, also as of October 2017.

After getting off a train at Tateyama Station, you can take a cable car to Bijodaira. The altitude at Tateyama Station is 475 meters in height. The altitude at Bijodaira is 977 meters in height. Tateyama Cable Car climbs this difference in altitude. It takes seven minutes from Tateyama to Bijodaira.

From Bijodaira, you will take a Tateyama Highland Bus to Murodo. The distance from Bijodaira to Murodo is 23 kilometers. It takes 50 minutes.

After leaving Bijodaira, a Tateyama Highland Bus runs through forests. After passing the forest limit, you will see highland scenery surrounded by North Japan Alps mountains. You can get off a bus at Midagahara and at Tengu-Daira. You can also enjoy hiking at Midagahara or Tengu-Daira. You will also see Mt. Tsurugi just before arriving at Murodo. The picture of Mt. Tsurugi is shown in the top of this page.

Murodo is the terminal of a Tateyama Highland Bus. This is the base camp for climbing Mt. Tateyama. Mt. Tateyama is just in front of you. At Murodo, you can see an active volcano crater, "Jigoku-Dani" and volcano lakes.

Murodo is located at the west foot of Mt. Tateyama and its altitude is 2,450 meters. To cut across Tateyama Mountain Range, Tateyama Tunnel Trolley Bus service is available to Daikanbo on the east foot of Mt. Tateyama. The distance is 3.7 kilometer. Bus runs at approximately every 10 minutes.

From Daikanbo, you can enjoy the scenery of Mt. Akazawa across the deep and steep Kurobe Gorge. This scenery is also incredible. You will take a Tateyama Ropeway from Daikanbo to Kurobe-Daira. You can also enjoy the spectacular scenery of Mt. Akazawa from a Tateyama Ropeway.

Tateyama Ropeway

You will take a Kurobe Cable Car from Kurobe-Daira to Lake Kurobe, "Kurobeko". In winter, this area is known as a deep-snow district. In order to avoid avalanches, a Kurobe Cable Car runs in a tunnel. Also, Tateyama Ropeway does not have any steel towers to support ropes between Daikanbo and Kurobe-Daira.

Kurobe-Ko Station of Kurobe Cable Car is located at the west side of Lake Kurobe. The altitude of the station is 1,455 meters in height. You can take a boat on Lake Kurobe to enjoy mountain scenery of both "Tateyama" and Ushiro-Tateyama" Mountain Ranges.

Near the station, the Kurobe Dam is located. To cross Kurobe Gorge, you can walk on the dam. The height of the dam is 186 meters, and this is the largest dam in Japan. You can see water-discharge from the dam. This view is also majestic.

After crossing Kurobe Gorge, you can take a Kanden Trolley bus from Kurobedam to Ohgisawa. In order to take a Kanden Trolley bus, you need a preliminary reservation, the same as Takeyama Cable Car. Kanden Trolley Bus runs through "Kanden Tunnel" with 6.1 kilometers in length, cutting across "Ushiro-Tateyama" Mountain Range. The tunnel was made to transport materials to make the Kurobe Dam.

At Ohgisawa bus terminal, connecting bus services are available to Shinano Ohmachi Staion on the JR Ohito Line.