Tateyama-so

Toyama Prefecture's kokumin-shukusha public lodge at Midagahara on the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, at 1,940m — said to be the highest such lodge in Japan. It stands directly opposite the Midagahara stop on the Tateyama Kogen bus: 60 minutes from JR Toyama Station to Tateyama Station via Dentetsu-Toyama, then 40 minutes by cable car and highland bus. Private cars are banned from the Alpine Route, so drivers park at Tateyama or Ogisawa station. The reinforced-concrete building has three floors and a basement, with 11 Japanese-style and 16 Western-style rooms, 27 in all, sleeping 89. Separate men's and women's public baths and an accessible bathroom are in the basement, and day visitors can bathe too. Inside are a dining room, a tea corner and a nature study room stocked with books on Tateyama's landscape and history; in the main season Toyama Prefecture naturalists run guided walks and interpretive talks. The outlook takes in the Dainichi range, sunsets sinking into a sea of cloud, and the night lights of the Toyama plain.