Tateyama 立山 :: One of Japan's Three Holy Mountains

The same three day weekend from my previous post, I also went hiking with my host family to Tateyama! Tateyama is in Toyama Prefecture, so it took around one and a half hours to get there by car. It's one of Japan's three holy mountains (the other two are Mt. Fuji and Hakusan, which is in Ishikawa!)

Throughout the year, Tateyama has some fantastic views, especially in the autumn and winter. In the winter, Tateyama becomes a huge skiing destination, and there's even a snow passage that the buses go through that can pile up to 20 meters high! The snow on the passage never really goes away, but by this time of year, the snow isn't that high (although the fact that there's still snow at this time of year is kind of crazy). Actually, for some more info on Tateyama, look here. 

The snow corridor in all its frigid glory. Really wish I could go back to see this.

We took the cable car and then a bus up to Mudoro, which is where most people start the hike. It's also the site of Japan's highest hotel. The cable car and the bus were quite expensive at around 24USD a person.

The view from Mudoro

The hike itself was pretty easy until the last 300 meters. The only thing that was a bit tough before that point was that there was still quite a bit of snow laying around that started to melt later in the day, so the mile or so of snow that we had to go through was slippery and precarious. Especially if you slipped the wrong way, you would go tumbling down the mountain and into the valley. Coming back was even more slippery since all the people going through had trampled down the path into a smooth trench, and because it was midday, the snow had really started to melt. So we basically just slid down the path like we were skiing. Sort of.

The path was quite well maintained

Beautiful views as far as the eye could see

Juri-chan and Otou-san forging on ahead

Plenty of places to take a rest and watch everyone else struggle up the slope

The snow brought back some painful memories of New Haven winter

The last 300 meters were very, very scary. But also fun. There wasn't really a trail up since it was all rocks and steep slopes. On the way up I had to use my hands to pull myself up quite often, and in a lot of places the rocks were all loose so it was difficult to find footing. Going back down was even scarier, since 1) I'm scared of heights and 2) Momentum.

View from the top of the mountain. In the distance, you can see the one of the rivers fed by the melting snow from these mountains

Stone marker at the top!

Oyama shrine at the highest point of the mountain

If you squint, you can see hikers eating cup ramen. Yep. Cup ramen at 3015 meters above sea level.

We started out the hike by the lake in the mid-left of this picture

Shrine near the beginning of the hike, after we got off of the mountain. People stack these rocks for good luck on the hike! Far far away on the top of the peak, you can see the building and Oyama shrine!

This iced over crater lake has a name, I'm sure. Right now I'll just call it pretty blue cold water. 

Okay. I'm very behind on blogging. Right now I'm writing this blog on my last night in Kanazawa, so look forward to all the backlogs of blogs that I should (want to) write. This may happen after I'm back in America. Till next time, thanks for reading, and DFTBA!