I travelled by night bus to Toyama City, about 300km north of Tokyo. I arrived, with not much sleep, at 6am and met up with a student, Youko. We traveled to Tateyama 立山, a 2.5km high mountain deep in the Japanese Alps. It is home to the famous annual Yuki no Outani, a 15m high snow tunnel!
We took Japan's longest single roped cablecar to reach the top:
We took Japan's longest single roped cablecar to reach the top:
It was pretty cold at the top, so we stopped for some termpura.
Tateyama is an active volcano, and was spewing Hydrogen Sulphide (rotten egg smell).
Yoko and I in very deep snow!
Toyama prefercture is also famous for its glowing hotaruika firefly squid. Unfortunately we were unable to see any in the sea due to low humidity, but we ate some instead at a local sushi restaurant.
That night, I stayed at an inexpensive hotel (~£35) near Toyama station. It turned out it was their first day of business and everything was brand new!! The staff said that I was lucky to have the chance to walk barefoot on freshly-laid tatami carpet!
Looking sunburnt in my room, and the kitchen area.
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