Day 2 - 6 Jun 15

The Alpine Route - this was the itinerary of the day.

We got up as early as 6am and had breakfast at the hotel. The spread was limited but it wasn't too bad. Though at the end it wasn't the very filling kind, it was just sufficient for me to kick off the day.

We drove for about an hour to Tateyama station. The drive was quite smooth though it was drizzling a little.

When we arrived at Tateyama station, our first mode of transport was the cable car which took us up a steep gradient towards Bijodaira. At Bijodaira, we boarded a bus which then took us to Murodo which was 2,450m above sea level. The ride was about an hour and so we took the opportunity to rest. When I woke up, towering snow walls could be seen flanking both sides of the road. I was excited but the excitement didn't last too long and here's why.

It was raining and freezing cold and my hands were numb from the biting wind and it felt as though my entire body was being exposed to nitrogen in the air. The fog was heavy and we could hardly see any scenery at all. We walked a couple of hundred metres between the snow walls, took some pictures and turned back because the weather just made it too unbearable to continue walking down the trail.

We left Murodo about 1215pm and took the trolley bus to Daikanbo. It brought us through a tunnel and the journey was only about 10min long. At Daikanbo, we took the ropeway to Kurobedaira and when we arrived, we had lunch.

After lunch, we were surprised by the magnificent view outside the windows. The fog had cleared. The mountains had revealed themselves. Many tourists snapped away with their cameras. We jumped at the opportunity to take some pictures too and it was before long that the mountains decided to shy themselves away with the help of the fog covering them. Thank God for this window of opportunity for us to admire His glorious creation.

We left Kurobedaira by cable car and headed towards Kurobeko, our final stop of the day. Here at Kurobeko, we took pictures of the beautiful lake. My brother-in-law journeyed on to the vantage point where he took some pictures of the Kurobe Dam, while the rest of us got ourselves ready to head back to Tateyama.

The journey back to Tateyama was awesome in that its view was much clearer compared to when we first came, as evidenced by the many more pictures taken on our way back. Today's adventure at Alpine Route was indeed one for the memory. What appeared to be disappointing at first turned out to be very fulfilling. Except for the cold weather, everything else was perfect and despite it being arduous, I wouldn't mind at all because I couldn't imagine looking at fog (and J defined it as nothingness) throughout the entire day.

We had our dinner at 近江屋 - a yakiniku style of eatery which was located near our hotel. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and having put our kids to bed, we retired for the night.