Goooooood morning, Toyama Prefecture from Excel Hotel Tokyu~
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| Toyama city view from our hotel room 917! |
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| Level 9 lift waiting area. Nicely decorated. |
1. First, we woke up very early to have breakfast at the hotel's cafe which is at a higher level from our room level (oopp, forgotten exactly about the cafe level ady)! *wheeeee*
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| Some Japanese (sushi, cold noodles, fermented tofu), Asian (dumpling) and Western (egg and fruit juice) styled breakfast! Sooo appetising~ |
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| Having a cuppa Cappuccino and peach fruits with a view! |
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| Overlooking the breathtaking Toyama city view during breakfast! How cool it was~ |
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| Me lurking in the dark. |
2. Before we departed to our next stop, I had to take some lovely pictures at outside of the hotel first. We saw the tram passing by just outside our hotel at the road itself. At the far end to the right side, we spotted a station. The tram services somehow reminded me of Nottingham, Britain.
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| At the lobby area |
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| Some real orchid flowers at the lobby area as a decoration. |
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| To the right side from our hotel. There's a station. |
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| To the left side from our hotel. *Just posing* |
3. Then, we departed at 7.30am to Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route mountains (Northern Japan Alps) located at the Nakaniikawa District of Toyama Prefecture which is also known as "Li San" (in Mandarin language but I spelled in Pinyin. lol- coz Mandarin is not my mother language~). It took us around 1 hour ride to reach our base destination (Tateyama Station).
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| What I saw on the way up: Japanese kids in their school uniform. |
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| Some civilised sign for everyone to take note and remember always~ |
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| We've reached the base of Tateyama Station @ 475 m high. Awaiting for some great adventures soon! |
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| Some display on screens showing the actual place, Live! |
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| Something for you to stamp on when you've reached each station for memories. |
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| We started with the cable car from Tateyama Station. We skipped the train ride from Toyama Station as our bus took us straight to Tateyama Station itself. |
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| First, cable car ride from Tateyama Station to Bijodaira Station (977 m high). |
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I'm here at Bijodaira Station at 977 m.
It was foggy at the outside. While awaiting for our bus ride to Murodo Station which is at about 2450m high, let's selfie and take some pics first. ;) |
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The 2 cedar trees. Also known as the Bijosugi (2 beautiful women) according to legend. We were told by our tour guide saying that legend believes that this Japan Alps mountains were forbidden to be entered by females. The guy who received enlightenment to develop this mountain told his wife about this mountain and so his wife and a maid decided to enter into this mountain. To his dismay, they were turned into 2 beautiful trees. Not sure how true this is.
Anyway, I googled and there's another belief saying that one could chant 3 times by saying, "The cedar trees of the beautiful mountain, if you have sympathy, please listen to my wish". Then, your wish will come trueeee. :) |
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| Nature we saw when on our way by bus to Murodo Station. Looks so Autumn in my heart~<3 3="" td=""> |
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| Magnificent and breathtaking view. Looks so surreaaaaal! |
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Those mountains are so aliveeeeee~
If one would to come during Spring season (April to June) in Japan, whereby there will be snow walls reaching up to 20 metres high from Midagahara section to Murodo Station. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see such great view of the snow wall during autumn. However, we started our journey with some rain and droplets, but as soon as we've got to the top of the mountain, it became sunny.
So lucky!! |
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| We've reached Murodo Station, which is at 2450 m high mountain. |
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| Scenery and rocks at Murodo station. Just slightly below the Tateyama peak. |
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| "The road not taken". ;) |
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| Alpine wild grasses. Autumn grasses. |
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I find this crater looking beautiful and magnificent! Just by looking at the splendid pond colour and view. Wow~
It is called the Mikurigaike pond formed due to volcanoes which occurred very long time ago. Every bad thing will eventually bring out the good thing along the way, in this case, awesome mother nature.
All these are parts of the Chubusangaku National Park at Japan. |
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| Breathtaking view. |
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The tour guide lady recommended this sponge cake to us. Oh goshhh, it was freakin' expensive with a plain sponge cake drizzled with caramel sauce and whipped cream, priced at 800 Yen. (not kidding)
I think I could make this one for you guys too, if you would to pay me such amount of money. :P |
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| The founder of the Northern Japan alps statue, Mr. Tateyama. |
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The trolley bus inside the mountain (hanging bus).
Going horizontally from Murodo Station to Daikanbo Station (2316 m high) to ride on the Tateyama Ropeway transport (hanging cable car). |
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| Going downhill from Daikanbo Station to Kurobedaira Station via Ropeway. |
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| Stopping by here to have our lunch. |
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| Bento set with a bowl of rice. Many of the others wouldn't like this. The food was a cold one and sweety, except for the rice. |
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After lunch, we had a lil' more time to loiter around the area.
More of the alpine view from Kurobedaira Station.
*Just alps and I* |
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| The signboard says it all. |
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| Huge "birdies". |
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Hello, I was here!
I felt like either I just blended in with the blue sky or the green mountains. hehe |
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| Sunny view of the alps. |
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| On our way going down to the Kurobe Dam via the cable car. |
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Inside the cable car.
On our way departing down from Kurobedaira Station (1828m high mountain) to Kurobe Dam (1450m). |
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Once we've reached there and we had to walk a short distance at the undertunnel.
The temperature was chilly, as compared to the slightly colder temperature than the summer in the UK. :D |
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| Once we've walked out from the tunnel, we're out at the Kurobe Dam area. The bald mountain view looks like the scene from the Lord of the Ring. The tour guide auntie said more similar to New Zealand though. Aiks, I thought the LOTR scene was shot in New Zealand? ;) |
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A halo of rainbow seen at the dam. We saw a double halo later. So lucky!
The weather at around there was sooo windy and chilly! |
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| I was here too! :D |
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| Water flows to the wide and endless world. |
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| Us shadows. |
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| Our last ride, taking the tunnel trolley bus from Kurobe Dam to Ogizawa Station, whereby our chartered bus will meet us there to pick us up! |
This magnificent mountains were discovered over 70 years ago and has opened to the public for about 50 years up till today. It was really indeed a wonderful and a great experience, I'ma tell you! They had made the mountains so interesting that we had to travel in a variety of transportations such as the cable car, bus, the tunnel trolley bus and the ropeway.
We spent around 6 hours at the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine mountains. To be honest, we weren't sure if we could do all these if we were to be on free and easy holiday~ One thing for sure, when it comes to this kind of affair, tour seems to be the best option as we did not need to purchase our own tickets and hassle free on all queues! Andddd...the Japanese seems to know how to get things run in a systematic and fast manner. We should all follow this kind of positive culture yo~
Our tickets were inclusive in our tour package. Therefore any free and easy holidaymakers who would want to visit this place, feel free to visit here:
http://www.alpen-route.com/en/transport_new/fares.html
4. Next, we left the alpine mountains at 2.30pm for the hotspring spa hotel @ the outskirt area at Isawa Prefecture.
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| Trying out the fresh milk product during a stop at the Parking Area. The boy was mistaken and read that it was a yogurt. haha! |
The journey took us around 3 hours to get there.
Alas, we've reached our hotel which is the Kasugai View Hotel, Isawa for some free and easy, dinner and spa for tonight!
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| The provided slippers for our hotspring spa later. |
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Our room for tonight.
Slightly smaller than the rest of the other hotel rooms that we went in Japan. |
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| The folded Origami birds decorated on the table. |
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| Safety and ethics guidelines placed in the room before going for the Hotspring spa tonight. :P |
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| The ourskirt view from the hotel room. |
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| The limited amenities provided by the hotel. We need to quench our thirst after our spa. |
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| Buffet dinner at the hotel with seafooooooooooooood! |
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| Table 14: Yummyyyyyyy~ Snow crabsssssss. HugeeeeeEEEEEeee |
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| Birthday cake they celebrated for me! ;) |
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| The hotel lobby! |
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| An ethical reminder again placed at outside the spa area. Too bad, no pics taken inside the spa. We went for around 30 min . |
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Drinks before bedtime, sparkling plum alcoholic drink~
We earlier walked to the mini mart nearby, few minutes walk from the hotel to buy some snacks.
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Good night, Isawa!
