Tateyama Bijodaira

Tateyama Bijodaira receives travelers at the mid-point of the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, where the cable car from Tateyama Station stops at the Bijodaira plateau (977 meters elevation) — a remarkable highland flat filled with one of Japan's finest stands of Japanese beech forest whose perfect silver-gray trunks and broad canopy create an autumn foliage display of such extraordinary beauty that the beech forest of Bijodaira has been designated a special natural protection area and draws visitors specifically to witness the October canopy transformation from green to gold and amber. The plateau's beech forest ecosystem represents an ecological transition zone between the lowland cedar and cedar forests of the Toyama coast and the alpine environments of the high Tateyama range above, sheltering populations of Japanese dormice, forested woodpeckers, and the endemic plant species characteristic of Japan's Honshu old-growth beech zones. The onsen's siliceous mineral waters provide restorative bathing for Alpine Route travelers at this enchanting mid-elevation pause in the journey between the Toyama plain and the snow-walled world of the Tateyama peaks above.