Destinations – Tateyama Kurobe Alipine Route

Yuichi

Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route is a collective name of the tourist areas, which consist of the high mountain range with the elevation from 2,300 to 3,000 meters, including such highlights as Kurobe dam, Murodo plateau and other fascinating natural features.

The population of the visitors to Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route is nearly 1,000,000 people a year.

Murodo in particular offers a wide range of activities. In spring, many tourists visit to see the snow wall known as “Yukino Otani (Snow Valley)”. In summer, many climbers can be seen making the pilgrimage to Mount Oyama, which has a peak of 3,015 meters. Autumn is the season for colored leaves, and you can enjoy a stroll while admiring the 3,000 meter high mountains and beautiful lakes, with surrounding leaves painted red and yellow.

2 types of ticket for Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route

What type of the ticket should you buy?

That depends on your next destination after Alpine Route.

To and fro travelers between Toyama and Alpine Route
Please choose your wished destination in Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route and buy the round-trip ticket between your destination and Dentetsu-Toyama station or Tateyama station.

Travelers heading to Nagano prefecture
Please buy the through ticket to Ogizawa. In order to go to other places in Nagano such as Nagano city, Matsumoto and Karuizawa, you need to arrange your transport in Ogizawa station.

How much time is needed for the travel?

Here’s the estimated travel time either from Toyama or Nagano.

Please refer to Fares | Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route (alpen-route.com) for more information.

	From Dentetsu Toyama sta.
Tateyama sta.	1h	3h30min.
Midagahara	1h30min.	180 min.
Murodo	1h50min.	2h40min.
Daikanbo	2h	2h30min.
Kurobe dam	2h15min.	2h
Ogizawa sta.	2h45min.	1h45min.
		From Nagano sta.

And please estimate your leisure time aside from the travel time between your destination and the original departure point.

Where to buy the ticket

Rount-trip ticket and through ticket are available at below locations.

Dentetsu-Toyama station
Tateyama station.
Web site of Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route

Please refer to Fares | Place to visit in Alpine Route

Murodo

Murodo is a plateau area with an altitude of 2,450 meters. It is also the starting base for the trail to the summit of Mt. Tateyama (Mt. Oyama) with an altitude of 3,015 meters. In addition to trailing, snow wall passage known as “Yukino Otani” (Limited to April to June) and the glittering Mikurigaike Pond are also wonderful places to visit.

Moreover, you can encounter alpine plants such as the Tateyama Gentian and highland animals such as the ptarmigan.

Kurobe-ko (Kurobe-dam)

Kurobe Dam is the largest dam in Japan, located at an altitude of 1,455 meters. The dam is dedicated to hydroelectric power generation and has a storage capacity of 200 million cubic meters (equivalent to 160 Tokyo Domes), a height (dam height) of 186 meters, and a width of 492 meters. It took 7 years to complete the whole construction of the dam and it lost 171 lives in the line of duty before the electricity transmission began in January 1961. In Summer, you can see the spouting of 10 tons of water per second from a height of 186 meters.

Midagahara

Midagahara is a wetland registered under the Ramsar Convention. Located at an altitude of about 1,930 meters, it is a treasure trove of alpine plants. It is a wetland which is admired as a fantastic place where you can see about 3000 puddles or small ponds.

Daikanbo

Daikanbo is a cliff area at an altitude of 2,316 meters, which is almost the same as Murodo. This is the place where you can take the ropeway that leads to the Ushiro Tateyama area.

The view of the Ushiro Tateyama mountain range and the emerald green Kurobe Lake that spreads out from the ropeway is breathtakingly beautiful.