Tourist Season Opens In Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route
A scenic mountain route running through the Northern Alps in central Japan has reopened for tourists following a winter break.
The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route fully opened on Friday for the first time in about four-and-half months. Piles of snow were removed from the route.
The route, which stretches for more than 37 kilometers, links Tateyama Town in Toyama Prefecture and Omachi Town in Nagano Prefecture. It contains roads, a ropeway system and cable car systems.
Tourists got off buses at the route's Murodo Station at 2,450 meters above sea level on Friday morning.
They looked at the "Yuki no Otani," a popular sightseeing spot along the route. It consists of huge walls of snow made up of accumulated snowfall, and is 18 meters at its highest point this year -- the highest in the past five years.
Although the weather was not ideal, visitors enjoyed touching the snow wall and taking pictures there.
A woman from Ibaraki Prefecture who visited the site for the first time said she was awed by the landscape.
A man from Kanagawa Prefecture said the snow wall appears to be higher than the third or fourth floor of a building.
The route's operator said the number of visitors fell to about 300,000 last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. About 1 million people visited annually before the pandemic.
The company said business looks to be improving this year, as it is receiving more bookings of package tours compared with last year.
Akimoto Kazuhide, who is in charge of sales at the company, said he hopes that visitors will enjoy the snow wall, which is 4 meters higher than last year. He added that he is looking forward to seeing many visitors after two years of slump due to the pandemic.