Tateyama Alpine Route立山黒部アルペンルート

The most iconic sight on the entire route. Each spring, massive snowplows carve a road through the deep snow on the Murodo plateau. The result is a narrow canyon of white snow towering up to 20 metres on either side of the road.

A 500-metre walking route between the snow walls is open to pedestrians, included with your Alpine Route ticket. Walls are highest in late April and early May, shortly after the route’s annual opening; by late June they melt down to a few metres and the corridor closes.

Murodo is the heart of the journey, most visitors spend at least 3 hours here. Mikurigaike Pond at 2,405 m is a cobalt-blue volcanic crater lake; on calm days the surface mirrors snow-capped Tateyama for one of the most-photographed scenes in the Japanese Alps.

Beyond the pond: Jigokudani (Hell Valley), a geothermal area of bubbling sulfurous vents; the raicho (mountain ptarmigan), a Special Natural Monument bird that turns mottled brown in summer and pure white in winter; and Mikurigaike Onsen at 2,410 m, Japan’s highest natural hot spring.

Japan’s longest one-span ropeway at 1.7 km, no support towers in the middle. Seven minutes of panoramic alpine views, with autumn foliage cascading down the mountainside in October.

The Daikanbo platform is also a viewpoint in its own right, pause for the panorama before descending.

Standing 186 metres tall, Kurobe Dam is the tallest dam in Japan. Construction took seven years and claimed 171 lives in the 1950s and 60s. The dam holds back the emerald waters of Kurobe Lake, surrounded by steep mountain walls on all sides.

From late June through mid-October, the dam performs a spectacular tourist water discharge, releasing 10+ tons per second in a thundering arc from the dam face. The observation deck on top is the panorama spot for both the lake and the cascade.