The city of Toyama is fairly small, built around a central station. Along the rivers are numerous sculptures of varying quality. I didn't love them all, but they were at least worth looking at, and made the walk around the city something I wanted to keep along with.

About two hours out of the city, by train, cable car, and bus, I made it to Tateyama, which is part of the Japanese Alps. This is about 2.5 kilometers above sea level, just touching the clouds.

The hot spring here is called the hell valley onsen, and has high sulfur levels. The day I went had dangerous levels, so was sectioned off a few 100 meters back.

There is an onsen at the top, known as the highest in Japan. Nothing outtrageous inside, but it does feel good to dip in an onsen when it's so cold outside.

After a dip in the onsen, I followed it up with some white shrimp tempura udon. Considering how out of the way the place was, the food was of surprising quality.

Lots of people hike through the area, the absolute summit being 3000 meters, roughly 300 meters lower than Mount Fuji. It'S nice to see someone attacking nature like this.

In some places, the snow is over two meters deep. Paths have been carved out, and are maintained throughout the winter for people to use.

Coming down off the mountain, the city of Toyama drops into view. A few hundred meters down and visibility dramatically increases.