Omachi to Murodo

November 6, 2025, from the itinerary:

Check out from the hotel and your pre-reserved car will pick you up and take you to the Ogisawa Station. Here you start the Kurobe Tateyama Alpen Route:

Ogisawa Station to Kurobe Dam by electric trolley bus

Sightsee around the Kurobe Dam and walk to the next step in the route - Kurobe Ko Cable Car Station, then take the Kurobe Ko Cable car to Kurobe Daira Station.

Finally at the Kurobe Daira Station take an electric trolley bus to Murodo (the red dot)

Check in at the Mikurigaike Onsen - the highest natural hot spring in Japan. Room will be a female shared room with bunk beds (up to 8 women), shared bath and toilet.

I had a local breakfast in the Hoshinoya Hotel which I would rate as a 5 out of 10.  Amongst other things the miso soup was cold.

I had time to go for another walk after breakfast and before pickup

Still no bears...

I was expecting big crowds and, thankfully, they didn't materialize. There were no problems getting tickets and the weather was wonderful. I was told it might be because the season ended two days before. We did see a monkey along the road.

I got a taste of the Chinese tourists as I was behind two Chinese tour groups.

I was glad to lose them at the Dam. The first set of electric buses took us along a 5.4 km of tunnnel under Mt Tatyama.

Once at the Dam there was an option to walk up 170 steps to the observation platform

which was well worth it to see the water release. The water release was supposed to end October 15 but it was pretty amazing to see it today.

There were beautiful views.

Here are some shots along the way up to the Murodo Station. I ended up talking to some men from Singapore - more about them tomorrow..

When I got to the top, I made a quick trip to the Hotel Tatayama shop where I was able to find some small spikes for my shoes, as I understood the conditions were slippery.  Unfortunately they only had size XL, but I was really glad to have them.

When I finally got outside there were whiteout conditions, but it wasn't particularly cold. 

The walking was treacherous without poles, but the spikes, even though small spikes and for much larger shoes, definitely helped.  There was nothing to hold on to.  At least there was a path, of sorts, leading to the hostel.  The area smelled of sulphur and I think that has to do with the volcanic activity in the area.

Here's a video of what I expected versus what it was like when I got there.

Slowly, slowly I made it to the hotel and tried a local specialty - blueberry ice cream.

It was really a hostel and I was in a room for 6.  I had to pay extra for a towel, there was no place to really relax or free tea and the onsen was very basic. 

I asked to be moved to the Hotel Tatayama, but there was no room there, or anywhere else close by.

The hostel also had adjustable spikes which actually fit and with much bigger spikes, so I bought these too (photo tomorrow).  I'm quite concerned I won't be able to make it back to the station if the weather turns bad over the next 2 days.

About hourly there is a big thump on the roof as the snow/ice comes off the higher roof and hits the lower roof.  It was off-putting.

I tried to relax until the evening meal which was surprisingly good.

After dinner I decided to try out my spikes and walked outside. It was a full moon and really beautiful, but cold.

The bed is amazingly hard.  Thankfully neither of my 2 roommates snored. I must have been very tired because I slept pretty fitfully until about 4am. Since I was up to go to the bathroom anyway, I decided to go out and see if there were any stars- unfortunately the moon was still up and it was cloudy.

I also noticed the sulphur alert sign...