This is one of the highlights in our trip. Although the price is pretty steep and took us a full day, it was a very good experience, the views are beautiful :)
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The reason we are writing this because we couldn’t find much information on the net as most people do a either a 1 way trip from Dentetsu Toyama to Ogizawa or Ogizawa to Dentetsu Toyama or a return trip from Dentetsu Toyama to Murodo (snow wall). We did a Dentetsu Toyama to Kurobeko return trip, unfortunately we missed the Migurika-Ike pond as it snowed heavily the night before and there was no path to walk on.
The tickets can be bought online via their web ticket website:
https://www.alpen-route.com/en/info/web_ticket.html
Do note that this is a very sought after side trip/day tour, especially between its opening on 15/4 and Japan’s Golden Week early May. Please register earlier and and logon when they announce the opening of the reservation. This is what I meant by well sought after:
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When we booked ours, their website opened for bookings on 30/3 3pm JST, and it crashed immediately at 3pm! We refreshed and waited an hour before we could logon, select tickets and when we clicked payment, it crashed again! We persistently continued refreshing and an hour later we managed to make payment before the website when down again! When we checked again a couple of hours later, the whole of April was sold out. There’s a possibility that the company will open up more seats a week prior to your travel date. Not sure about previous years but in 2023, they opened up more bookings on 8/4 for 15/4 and will keep doing that every day, so please check the website’s announcements frequently 😊
Please be very careful when you select your tickets, it can be misleading/confusing. When selecting your tickets, you can pay from Dentetsu Toyama station but the TIME you are choosing is actually FROM TATEYAMA/OGIZAWA STATION.
We bought return trip tickets from Dentetsu Toyama to Kurebeko at 7:20am. Meaning you need to be at Tateyama station before 7:20am to get on the cable car to Bijodaira. And Dentetsu Toyama is 65 mins away from Tateyama station. I.e. you need to get on the 6:05am train from Dentetsu Toyama. Don’t worry, There are hundreds of people waiting in queue there like you 😊
Some useful pointers if you are taking the early train.
- Web ticket exchange - you can print your actual tickets from a machine in Dentetsu Toyama after 12pm the day before your trip. It’s very easy. Just scan your QR code and collect the printed tickets. Keep the tickets securely as all the transportation on that route is dependant on the QR code on the ticket, similar to a JR pass. Apologies as I didn’t have a photo of the ticket. The station master will collect the ticket at the end of your trip.
- Breakfast - you can either get bread and rice balls from convenience stores and bakery the day before or there’s a shop selling rice in Dentetsu Toyama just before the entrance gates at the station
- The train from Dentetsu to Tateyama has non reserved seating and it stops every station in between to allow public to embark and disembark hence can get quite packed in the mornings
- Please wear weather proof shoes as it can get wet and slushy. Proper snow attire is recommended, maybe some heat packs as well because it can get very cold and windy. Plus sunglasses and sun screen on your face as the sun reflecting off the snow can get quite glaring. We wore a fleece sweater underneath a TNF Ventrix Summit Hoddie and a TNF Resolve 2 shell, long John with jeans worked well together with TNF Fast pack water resistant shoes.
- Take note of the last bus leaving Murodo, there are notice boards setup around the area. If you miss the bus, you will need to stay a night and only be able to get down the next morning
If you are able to go early, you get to spend more time in Murodo and the snow wall, the crowd will only get more and more. Take an early lunch and leave for the cable car to Daikanbo around 1pm. You can take pretty great photos at Kurobe dam, you can spend anywhere from 30-60 mins there. After that you can take all the transport back to Murodo.
This trip is very weather dependent, so check back their website frequently before your trip. The evening before our trip, I heard of cancellations and possible delays or changes in schedule for our morning trip as well. We were very lucky the rain stopped near midnight and it was bright and sunny on our travel day.
With the amount of people going for this trip, the queues and lines can be petty chaotic. Do not hesitate to ask the staffs there where you should be queuing, they are very helpful and can understand basic English when you show them your ticket. You don’t want to be waiting with a big tour group and delay your trip 😊
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