Kamiichi Onsen

Kamiichi Onsen lies in the town that serves as the eastern terminus of the Toyama Regional Railway's Tateyama line, making it the primary access point for the Tateyama Cable Car — the first leg of the famous Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route that carries visitors from the Toyama plain to the alpine world of Murodo at 2,450 meters, passing through beech forests, ravines, and the dramatic Bijodaira plateau in a journey of ascending geological and scenic wonder through the Northern Alps. The Tateyama route's popularity means that Kamiichi is the seasonal entry point for hundreds of thousands of visitors each year from April to November, and the town has developed facilities and services to support this alpine tourism while maintaining its character as an agricultural community at the base of Japan's most dramatically traversable mountain range. The onsen's siliceous mineral waters provide warm restorative bathing at the Tateyama route's lowland gateway, offering the geothermal complement to the cold alpine air of the mountain world that begins just kilometers up the valley from the thermal pools.