3 – 5 May 2014

Last trip for golden week long holiday this year I’m heading to Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route where snow corridor standing after long winter.

First stop is Toyama side. I will start from Tateyama station and cross the route to Matsumoto and Nagano.

Snow corridor trip is on the next day so arriving date still have time for me to visit world heritage in Toyama by taking JR to Takaoka station. Zuiryuji temple will be absolutely the destination.

Another side of Takaoka stain, there are also some places to visit. Just in front of the station, Wing Wing building, Doraemon and his friends are wiring for everyone there. Takaoka is the city where Fujiko F. Fujio, guy who create Doraemon was born.

Walk along the Manyo tram way to Daibutsu is also a must. Daibutsu here is 1 of 3 in Japan. Other 2 are in Nara and the most famous place, Kamakura.

Going back to Toyama to prepare for next day through the snow corridor, I still have time to visit a big park here in the evening. Fugan Unga Kansui Koen is a very beautiful landscape park. People in Toyama should like and enjoy this place quite well.

The highlight for this trip has come on the second day. Very early morning train bring me to Tateyama station and traveler already start crowded because of the golden week period.

During this time on the route, only snow corridor (Yuki no Otani) is the main purpose. Other places are still too cold for flowers and fully spring. The day I visit, the highest point of this snow corridor is 13.9 meters.

Alpine route is great in every seasons. Snow corridor at this time, Nature trekking in summer with full of flowers and colourful autumn will remind you to come back here every time. And don’t forget about Kurobe dam. The highest dam in Japan where it has a lot of stories. More information about Tateyama Kurobe Alpine route is in the following link http://www.alpen-route.com/en/

End of this route, Matsumoto is my next destination. Next day will be the last day for a long golden week trip and hard work is waiting for me after that.

Matsumoto castle is one of famous castle in Japan. Since previous trip in Aomori, Sakura with all of famous castles in Japan is in my dream plan already 🙂

In the afternoon, I move from Matsumoto to Nagano. Short time left before train to Tokyo, Zenkoji, one of the most important buddhist temple in Japan is there. 14 centuries temple is very beautiful and you can walk into the totally dark route here under the temple. It’s very interesting and exciting.

Another highlight for this trip have brought me to Nagano in the afternoon. It is brand new Shinkansen E7. I have tried E5 Hayabusa to Aomori and E6 to Akita already and this new bullet train just start its engine on last March. Absolutely the route is between Tokyo to Nagano and maybe extended to other cities in the near future.

Long trip has ended. Working days are coming but my next trip should be soon enough. Even just a short trip during weekend, I will go to see more Japan as usual 😀