Located in Chubu is one of Japan’s most beautiful sites and perhaps one of the greatest scenes this reporter has ever had the privilege to lay eyes on. On the second day of Travel Agent’s fam trip prior to the Yokoso! Japan Travel Mart, we visited the Tateyama National Park, home to Mount Tateyama and a snow covered mountain landscape that offers the country’s famed Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route.
As I already mentioned in previous blogs, I didn’t know much about Japan before I visited. So, you can imagine my delight when I learned we were going to be visiting some mountain scenery. I was probably more pleased than everyone else on the trip when our guide told us we needed to bundle up. I love snowy mountains, I love hiking, and I love finding something that no one knows about.
For your adventurous clients, I urge you to pitch this excursion. A bus takes you on a nearly one-hour journey through the alpine route where you first see incredibly robust trees that have been around for centuries. When you least expect it, the Tateyama Mountain pokes its head out of the fog and from then on out, you are hypnotized by its size and beauty. The final lap of the trip takes you through the famous snow corridor, which is basically a road dug out through snow. And I’m not talking about a few inches to the left and right. Try about five stories of snow piled to the left and right of the road. If this thing ever collapsed, say goodbye. But no worries, the snow was as hard as cement.
We walked along the corridor, leaned against the immense blocks of snow, wrote messages on the snow walls with our fingers and then watched as hikers made their way up the mountain and snowboarded down. This wasn’t the Japan I learned about. But this is the Japan I will be dreaming about for the rest of my life. Keep reading as we tell you about the rest of our journey through Japan from making paper to creating our own wax sculptures.