[GW Travel Report] Why Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route is So Popular During Golden Week
During Golden Week, the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route offers the overwhelming spectacle of the "Snow Corridor" — something you simply cannot find anywhere else in the world. Snow typically accumulates to around 15–20 meters, creating the iconic Snow Corridor. In 2025, the maximum height reached 16 meters!
This article documents my actual visit to the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route during GW 2025, traveling from Tateyama Station to Murodo Plain to see Mt. Oyama and the Snow Corridor. I'll cover how to book tickets, wait times, and the overall flow of the trip. This should be helpful for: ① tourists planning to visit the Snow Corridor, and ② hikers and skiers planning to climb Mt. Oyama or similar peaks.
What is the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route?
To reach the Snow Corridor and Mt. Oyama, you need to get to Murodo Plain, situated at 2,450 meters above sea level. There are two ways to access Murodo, the highest point on the Alpine Route — from the Toyama Prefecture side, or from the Nagano Prefecture side. The Toyama side offers the dramatic view of the Snow Corridor from the Tateyama Highland Bus, and involves fewer vehicle transfers, so if you want to get there as quickly as possible, the Toyama side is recommended.
This article is a firsthand record of accessing Murodo Plain from the Toyama side during Golden Week.
Advance Reservations
Making advance reservations for the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route makes for a much more comfortable trip. Same-day tickets are technically available, but you'd need to line up at the ticket center very early in the morning, and in the worst case they can sell out entirely. Advance booking is strongly recommended.
Tickets can be purchased here:
https://tateyama-kurobe-webservice.jp/AlpenTour/html/VW001W0010.html
2025 tickets went on sale roughly one month in advance. With a little early planning, securing tickets online is very doable — but they are popular, so act fast to avoid missing out.
If you weren't able to get tickets or couldn't get a good time slot, note that extra departures are often added in the week before and during GW. These additional slots are released for booking and give another chance to reserve.
In 2025, extra tickets were released weekly for the following week throughout the GW period, allowing people who initially missed out to secure reservations. Thanks to this, I was able to book the 7:10 departure.
For fare details, please check the following page — in 2025, the one-way adult fare from Tateyama to Murodo was ¥4,090:
https://www.alpen-route.com/access_new/fare/person/index.php
No reservation needed for the return trip!
The return journey requires no advance booking. Simply purchase a ticket at the ticket center, join the queue, and you'll be back at the base (Tateyama Station) without any hassle.
Tateyama Station (Parking)
I secured a 7:10 departure, so on the day I drove from a business hotel in Toyama City to Tateyama Station. I was worried about traffic, but the roads were completely clear. As for parking, Lots 1 and 2 were full, but Lots 3 and beyond all had spaces, and I was able to park in Lot 4.
Helpfully, the Alpine Route shares real-time parking availability — the status on my day showed Lot 4 with a fair number of cars but it never filled up completely.
With the car parked, I grabbed my gear and headed to the station.
Tateyama Station
Arriving at the station, the rotary leads to a central staircase toward the cable car gates, with the ticket center on the right. Both same-day and advance reservation holders exchange their tickets here.
Even on this GW day, there was quite a line for same-day tickets. A set number are sold daily, and many people had arrived early to get one. Since I had a reservation, I was able to exchange my ticket quickly without waiting in line.
Inside the station, things were less crowded than I expected. With tickets being largely reservation-based and Tateyama being somewhat difficult to reach from Tokyo, the cable car flow was smooth. Departures run every 10 minutes, with passengers called in groups — there was no notable congestion and the waiting area never felt overstuffed.
The station has a souvenir shop and a free rest area. Near the rest area is a Mont-bell shop, open from around 7:00 AM (even earlier on GW days). They offer rentals of beacons, ice axes, and crampons, as well as gear for purchase. The restrooms didn't have unusually long lines either.
Then it was time to board the cable car. Passengers are called 10 minutes before departure.
The cable car is packed — quite tightly. I was lucky enough to get a seat, though sitting with a 40L pack on my back felt a bit cramped. The right side of the car supposedly has slightly better views; I was on the left and spent the ride looking at a stone wall. That said, the ride is only 7–8 minutes, and the right side isn't dramatically more scenic, so honestly either seat is fine.
Tateyama Station to Murodo Plain
The Tateyama Cable Car covers 1.3 km from Tateyama Station (475m elevation) to Bijodaira Station (977m elevation), climbing 502 meters in about 8 minutes. Arriving at Bijodaira, you'll find a large fleet of buses waiting. The line looked long in photos, but with many buses cycling through, boarding was efficient and stress-free.
From Bijodaira (977m), the Tateyama Highland Bus travels 23 km via Midagahara (1,930m) and Tengudaira (2,300m) to Murodo (2,450m) — approximately a 50-minute ride. Along the way, the bus stops at Takimidai for a photo opportunity overlooking Shomyo Falls (passengers stay on board).
There's no snow at Tateyama or Bijodaira stations, but as the bus climbs higher, the walls of snow on either side grow steadily taller.
Midway through the journey, an announcement was made that the bus would need to fit tire chains. Heavy rain and snow the day before had frozen the road surface, and a bus ahead had slipped and struck the snow wall. (It was not a serious accident.) The bus pulled into a rest area to install chains before continuing to Murodo. As the onboard announcements will remind you — please keep your seatbelt fastened at all times.
Murodo Plain
After 50 minutes on the bus, we arrived at Murodo Plain. Stepping outside was like entering a completely different world — a sea of white impossible to imagine from the base. While spring had already arrived at Tateyama Station below, Murodo was fully in winter, cold and blanketed in snow.
There were plenty of skiers, and many people could be seen setting off for snow mountain hikes with crampons.
The area inside Murodo was far more crowded than Tateyama Station below — and notably, it felt like there were more foreign visitors, particularly from Korea and other parts of Asia, than Japanese tourists. As mentioned earlier, Murodo is where visitors from both the Toyama (Tateyama) side and the Nagano (Ogizawa) side converge, and being GW, it was expectedly busy. Many visitors had also stayed overnight in the area and were heading back on this day.
I departed Tateyama Station at 7:10 and arrived at Murodo around 8:30. The Snow Corridor Walk didn't open until 9:30, so I couldn't walk it right away. The entrance sign was up, but the queue wasn't long an hour before opening. Since I was planning to climb Mt. Oyama that day, I ended up doing the Snow Corridor Walk the following morning.
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Stepping outside, the scenery is breathtaking. Walking from Murodo toward Mt. Oyama, a stunning panorama opens up. Truly moving. While many visitors come for the Snow Corridor, the views toward Oyama are equally impressive. You can see crowds of people in the photos — early arrivals heading straight out for snow climbing and skiing.
Accommodations Along the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route
Mikurigaike Onsen
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Hol | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 - 16:00 | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Hol | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00 - 20:00 | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Hol | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:00 - 22:00 | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Hol | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 - 18:30 | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
Summary
This article covered how to book, what to expect, and tips for visiting the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route during Golden Week. From the Snow Corridor to the snow-covered Mikurigaike Pond and winter mountaineering on Mt. Oyama, the GW experience is entirely different from a summer visit. Tateyama is also one of Japan's premier backcountry skiing destinations.
It's a place I'd strongly recommend visiting at least once!
For those wanting to enjoy hot springs in Tateyama: https://www.tan-ken.com/ja/blog/qxxxb9kvh5h
