A sightseeing route that runs through the Tateyama mountain range in central Japan fully opened Wednesday for this year’s tourist season, featuring tall snow walls.
The Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, which is closed during winter, connects the town of Tateyama in Toyama Prefecture and the city of Omachi in Nagano Prefecture in the Northern Alps by bus, ropeway and cable car. The route is open until the end of November.
Snow walls created by snow removal work on the Murodo plateau at an altitude of 2,450 meters reached 12 meters this year, according to a local transport company. Tourists took photos on the snow corridor named “Yuki no Otani” while light snow fell.
Yoshie Yamanaka, 60, who visited from Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, said she was moved as she saw the snow walls for the first time. “I didn’t think the walls would be this high,” she said.
Tomohiko Takibayashi from the transport company Tateyama Kurobe Kanko Co said, “The wall height is one attraction but if you look at the snow layers, you can see yellow sand and ice grains inside, which shows the weather conditions (of last winter).”
© KYODO
Source : https://japantoday.com/category/national/japan%27s-alpine-route-opens-showcasing-snow-walls
