This is a desk-researched itinerary. I have never been to Kurobe Gorge, Tateyama or Toyama City. These are places I would like to go, researched and planned as seriously as if I were actually going. Prices and operating information were checked in September 2026, but services and fares on mountain routes change easily, so please check the latest information on each official website before you travel.
The plan at a glance
- Budget: ¥150,000 for two (¥75,000 per person), 3 days and 2 nights, from Tokyo. The main target is next year's season (2027)
- Where: the Kurobe Gorge Torokko train + the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route (Murodo) + Toyama City
- Day 1: Tokyo → Kurobe-Unazukionsen → the Torokko to Keyakidaira and back → a night in Unazuki Onsen
- Day 2: the Toyama Chiho Railway from Unazuki to Tateyama → the cable car and the highland bus to Murodo (2,450 m above sea level) → down to central Toyama in the early evening → a night near Toyama Station
- Day 3: Toyama City (the Glass Art Museum, Kansui Park, Toyama Bay sushi) → an afternoon Shinkansen back to Tokyo
- Estimated cost: about ¥141,000 for two (about ¥71,000 per person)
- Bottom line: take the Shinkansen out to Kurobe-Unazukionsen and back from Toyama, as two one-way trips. Changing altitude from gorge to mountains to city, the trip runs from Kurobe Gorge via Tateyama to Toyama City
Why put these three into one trip?
It started with the Toyama Chiho Railway route map I was looking at while writing my article on the Kurobe Gorge Torokko (2 days and 1 night, ¥100,000 for two). I noticed that Unazuki Onsen, the starting point of the Torokko, and Tateyama Station, the starting point of the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, are connected by the same private railway. From Unazuki Onsen to Tateyama Station takes about 2 hours, with a change at Terada Station. Toyama Prefecture's two big mountain attractions actually sit at opposite ends of the same local private railway network.
So why not join them up? That is this plan. On day 1, ride the Torokko along the bottom of the gorge; on day 2, go up above the clouds to 2,450 m; on day 3, finish with sushi from Toyama Bay. A V-shaped valley, volcanic landscape above the clouds, and seafood. It is a trip that covers an altitude difference of 2,400 m in 3 days and 2 nights.
The Torokko resumed service over the full line between Unazuki and Keyakidaira on October 1, 2026. Because of recovery work at Keyakidaira, however, you cannot go anywhere there except the station building and the visitor center for the time being (I wrote about the background in my Kurobe Gorge article). The Alpine Route normally operates from April 15 to November 30, almost the same as the Torokko (April 20 to November 30). In other words, every year there are seven months when the two can be combined into a single trip, and each season has its highlight: go in spring for Yuki-no-Otani, the Snow Wall, or in autumn for the autumn leaves.
Working out how to get there
The backbone of this plan is not using the same Shinkansen station in both directions.
- Out: Hokuriku Shinkansen Hakutaka, Tokyo → Kurobe-Unazukionsen, ¥12,300 with a reserved seat, about 2 hours 20 minutes
- Back: Hokuriku Shinkansen Kagayaki, Toyama → Tokyo, ¥13,180 with a reserved seat, about 2 hours 5 minutes
The itinerary changes the station where you get on and off the Shinkansen, going from Unazuki via Tateyama to Toyama. The fare is about the same as buying a round trip.
Getting around within the prefecture is all on the Toyama Chiho Railway. In April 2025 it revised its fares for the first time in 29 years, and the current fares are ¥1,420 from Dentetsu-Toyama to Tateyama and ¥2,160 from Dentetsu-Toyama to Unazuki-Onsen.
- Shin-Kurobe → Unazuki-Onsen: about 25 minutes, in the ¥700s
- Unazuki-Onsen → Tateyama: about 2 hours with a change at Terada, around ¥2,500 (the through fare needs checking)
- Tateyama → Dentetsu-Toyama: about 1 hour, ¥1,420
Then comes the star of day 2, the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. From Tateyama Station the cable car takes 7 minutes up to Bijodaira, and from there the highland bus takes 50 minutes to Murodo. The fare between Tateyama Station and Murodo is ¥7,380 round trip (¥4,090 one way; from the official fare table, as of February 2026). You can buy tickets at the window on the day, but at busy times the cable car runs on a system of numbered tickets for set departure times, so buying in advance with the official WEB tickets is the safe option.
Beyond Murodo, you can continue by the Tateyama Tunnel Electric Bus to Daikanbo, the Tateyama Ropeway to Kurobedaira and the cable car to Kurobeko, and on to Kurobe Dam, but a round trip between Tateyama and Kurobeko costs ¥16,480, more than twice as much, and takes up a whole day. This plan turns back at Murodo. The dam will have to wait for another trip.
Model itinerary: 3 days, 2 nights
The Torokko times below are provisional, based on the official timetable for October 1 to November 30, 2026. As of September 13, 2026, I could not find an official 2027 timetable, so I will revise the itinerary once it is announced.
Day 1: Down to the bottom of the gorge
Take the Hakutaka leaving Tokyo at 8:41 and arrive at Kurobe-Unazukionsen at 11:07. Change to the Toyama Chiho Railway for Unazuki Onsen. After lunch, take the 12:50 Torokko to Keyakidaira and come back on the 14:37. The outbound train spends 1 hour 22 minutes one way running through the gorge. This day is the same as in my Kurobe Gorge article, so see that article for the Torokko booking rules (trips to Keyakidaira can be booked only by phone, 0765-62-1011) and the details of the access restrictions at Keyakidaira.
For the night, stay at Feel Unazuki, a 2-minute walk from the Torokko station. It is a hotel that mainly offers breakfast-only stays, and you go out into the hot-spring town for dinner. The next morning starts early, so this hotel, where breakfast is included and you can set off quickly, suits this plan.
Day 2: Up above the clouds to 2,450 m, then into Toyama for the night
Take a morning Toyama Chiho Railway train from Unazuki Onsen to Tateyama. Change to the Tateyama Line at Terada Station, and you reach Tateyama Station before noon. From here on, it is the Alpine Route.
Ride the cable car up to Bijodaira and change to the highland bus. Over 50 minutes the bus climbs 1,500 m. Along the way you can see Shomyo Falls, the waterfall with the greatest drop in Japan, in the distance; the forest gives way to low shrubs, and eventually you pass the tree line. Just watching the vegetation change outside the window is enough to keep the 50-minute bus ride from feeling long.
Murodo is 2,450 m above sea level. Step out of the bus terminal and Mt. Oyama, the main peak of the Tateyama range, is straight ahead, with a walking path leading to Mikurigaike Pond. A walk around the pond and back takes about 40 minutes round trip. Even in September you need a jacket; this is a place where snow lingers even in summer. Mountain weather tends to turn in the afternoon, so allow 2 to 3 hours at Murodo and take a bus down between 15:00 and 16:00.
From Tateyama Station, the Toyama Chiho Railway takes about an hour to Dentetsu-Toyama. In the evening, have Toyama Bay seafood around Toyama Station. The seasonal stars change, from white shrimp to firefly squid (spring) and yellowtail (winter), but what Toyama has is a high standard of conveyor-belt sushi that you can enjoy all year round. The hotel is Comfort Hotel Toyama, a 4-minute walk from the station. It is a business hotel with free breakfast; I treat the second night as just for sleeping and keep the lodging cost down.
Day 3: Walk the city of glass, and finish with sushi
In the morning, take the city tram to the Toyama Glass Art Museum. It is inside TOYAMA Kirari, a mixed-use building designed by Kuma Kengo. With its exterior of granite, glass and aluminum, and an interior where louvers of Toyama-grown timber run diagonally through the atrium, the building alone is worth seeing. The permanent exhibition costs ¥200 for adults. In the Glass Art Garden on the 6th floor, you can see installations by Dale Chihuly.
Before noon, head to Fugan Canal Kansui Park. Lawns spread along the canal waterside, and the classic view takes in the Starbucks that was called "the most beautiful Starbucks in the world" and the Tenmon Bridge. If you have the time and the interest, there is also the option of a canal cruise from the park to Iwase.
For lunch, finish with sushi. Buy masu-zushi (trout sushi) to take home, and if you catch a Kagayaki leaving Toyama between 14:00 and 15:00, you will be in Tokyo before 17:00. The plan makes the most of Toyama Bay's seafood right to the end.
Estimated cost (total for two, with per-person figures)
Assuming next year's regular season
- Hokuriku Shinkansen, Tokyo → Kurobe-Unazukionsen, reserved seat: ¥24,600 for two
- Hokuriku Shinkansen, Toyama → Tokyo (Kagayaki), reserved seat: ¥26,360 for two
- Toyama Chiho Railway, 3 sections (Shin-Kurobe → Unazuki-Onsen / Unazuki-Onsen → Tateyama / Tateyama → Dentetsu-Toyama): about ¥9,300 for two
- Torokko train, Unazuki ⇔ Keyakidaira round trip (including Relax carriages): ¥12,320 for two
- Alpine Route, Tateyama ⇔ Murodo round trip: ¥14,760 for two
- Lodging, night 1: Feel Unazuki with breakfast, about ¥17,000 for two (assuming a regular-season rate)
- Lodging, night 2: Comfort Hotel Toyama with free breakfast, about ¥11,000 for two
- Toyama city tram (flat fare ¥240) and the Glass Art Museum's permanent exhibition: ¥880 for two
- Meals (lunch and dinner on day 1, lunch and dinner on day 2, lunch on day 3) and incidentals: about ¥25,000 for two
Total: about ¥141,000 for two (about ¥71,000 per person)
That leaves about ¥9,000 to spare within the ¥150,000 budget, so you could move dinner on day 2 up from conveyor-belt sushi to a slightly better restaurant, or make lunch on day 3 a meal at a proper sushi restaurant. I think Toyama is the city where that kind of upgrade makes the biggest difference.
To save money, drop the Relax carriages on the Torokko for −¥2,400, and take the cheapest room-only rate in Toyama for about −¥2,000. Conversely, making the Unazuki stay a hot-spring inn with dinner and breakfast adds ¥20,000–¥40,000, and more in peak season (I wrote about the going rates in my Kurobe Gorge article).
Prices are based on information as of September 2026. Some Toyama Chiho Railway sections include estimates (see "What I still do not know" below).
Snow walls, or autumn leaves?
The main target of this plan is next year, the 2027 season. There are two candidates.
One is Yuki-no-Otani, from mid-April to June. These are walls of snow created by clearing the road up to Murodo, and in some years they are more than 15 m high. The bus passes between the walls, and at Murodo a walk is held where you can stroll along them. The walls are at their highest right after the Alpine Route opens (normally on April 15). The Torokko, however, starts running around April 20, and on the Unazuki side winter is still lingering. If you want Yuki-no-Otani to be the star, you could also swap days 1 and 2 and do Tateyama first.
The other is the autumn leaves in October. The alpine grasses at Murodo turn in late September, Midagahara in early October, and Bijodaira and the Torokko's gorge in late October to early November. Around mid-October, the highland bus lets you pass through every altitude of autumn colour in a single day, and the leaves along the Torokko have also begun to turn. This is the season in which this plan's itinerary works just as it is.
What I would avoid is the rainy season, typhoons, and days when Murodo is in fog. On a clear day Mt. Oyama is straight ahead of you at Murodo; once you are in the fog, you cannot see a few dozen meters ahead. Another advantage of this itinerary, with the night before in Unazuki, is that on the morning of day 2 you can check the Tateyama live camera and then decide whether to go up.
What I still do not know
- Some Toyama Chiho Railway fares and times. I have confirmed ¥1,420 for Dentetsu-Toyama to Tateyama and ¥2,160 for Dentetsu-Toyama to Unazuki-Onsen (revised April 2025), but the through fare from Unazuki-Onsen to Tateyama and the one-way fare from Shin-Kurobe to Unazuki-Onsen are estimates. What time a morning train from Unazuki-Onsen reaches Tateyama (the connection wait at Terada) also needs checking before the plan is final. The Toyama Chiho Railway also has unlimited-ride tickets for its railway lines, so if you ride three sections, one of those may be cheaper
- The future of the Toyama Chiho Railway's railway lines. Whether to keep or close the section on the Unazuki-Onsen side had been under discussion, but at the prefecture's restructuring study meeting on September 29, 2026, a plan was presented to maintain all of the railway lines under a "deemed vertical separation" scheme (with the prefecture and the seven municipalities along the lines splitting the cost of maintaining the facilities 50/50 with the Toyama Chiho Railway), and things are now moving toward keeping all of the lines. Detailed talks toward putting it into practice are continuing. This line is the lifeline of this plan, so please check its operating status before you go
- Crowding at Murodo. I hear that in the Yuki-no-Otani season and on autumn-leaf weekends, people end up waiting for numbered tickets for the cable car. It is unclear how much of that wait the WEB tickets let you avoid
- Availability of Feel Unazuki's plans with breakfast (as in the Kurobe article, in busy periods it tends to offer room-only stays)
- Toyama city tram fares, and the Glass Art Museum's special exhibition prices (¥200 for the permanent exhibition is confirmed)
- Whether there is time on day 3 to go out to Iwase (a port town of the Kitamaebune trading ships). If that becomes a half-day course together with the canal cruise, it may not fit with time for sushi
Conclusion
The bottom of the gorge, above the clouds, and the seafood. An altitude difference of 2,400 m, threaded together by the Toyama Chiho Railway: 3 days and 2 nights, about ¥141,000 for two. The itinerary gets off the Shinkansen at Kurobe-Unazukionsen on the way out, goes via Tateyama, and boards again at Toyama for the way back.
If it is just the Torokko, 2 days and 1 night for ¥100,000; if you want to add Tateyama and the city of Toyama, this plan.
Photos from Wikimedia Commons: みくりが池01 (くろふね / CC BY-SA 4.0), 立山雪の大谷20220507-IMG 2160 (くろふね / CC BY 4.0), 富岩運河環水公園の桜20230401-IMG 5925 (くろふね / CC BY 4.0), Toyama Kirari internal (タチヤマカムイ / CC BY-SA 4.0), and Toyama Series14773 Tateyama-Line (MaedaAkihiko / CC BY-SA 4.0). All resized only. Illustrations are for reference.
Estimated cost (total for two, two people sharing one room / per person)
- Hokuriku Shinkansen (Tokyo → Kurobe-Unazukionsen / Toyama → Tokyo): ¥50,960 / ¥25,480 per person
- Toyama Chiho Railway, 3 sections: about ¥9,300 / about ¥4,650 per person
- Torokko train, Unazuki ⇔ Keyakidaira round trip (including Relax carriages): ¥12,320 / ¥6,160 per person
- Alpine Route, Tateyama ⇔ Murodo round trip: ¥14,760 / ¥7,380 per person
- Lodging, 2 nights (Unazuki with breakfast + near Toyama Station with free breakfast): about ¥28,000 / about ¥14,000 per person
- Sightseeing, meals and incidentals: about ¥25,880 / about ¥12,940 per person
- Total: about ¥141,000 for two (about ¥71,000 per person)