Japan's High Plateaus & Alpine Roads

About this book

Japan is usually seen from its lowlands. This book starts from the other end: the high places you reach by climbing.

Japan's High Plateaus & Alpine Roads covers 200 high places in one traveller's format — the land and the road that climbs to it, the history people made at that height, how to visit, drive and stay, and the safety note that belongs to that place. The Shiretoko Pass between two seas. The snow walls of Tateyama and Hakkoda. Murodo's alpine plain, Kamikochi's sky valley, Norikura's summit road among the highest paved roads in Japan. The Venus Line plateaus, the Shikoku Karst and the UFO Line, the grass sea of Kusasenri inside the Aso caldera, Ebino's volcanic plateau, Yakushima's mossy high valleys.

It is honest where height demands it. Mountain roads close — for winter, for works, for volcanic alerts — so nothing in this book asserts that a road is open today. Instead, every one of the 200 entries closes with its own specific cautions and the same instruction to confirm current openings, closures, weather and warnings in official sources, and the practical chapters teach you to read mountain weather, cloud seas and closure information before you ever turn a wheel uphill. Places that are viewpoints are described as viewpoints. Living volcanoes are handled through their official alert information, never around it.

Come and read the country from above its towns.

Written and created in Japan by Japanese author Aki Wakamatsu. Published by Takikawa TOKOTOKO Kids LLC, a Japanese publisher in Hokkaido, Japan. Authentic Japanese content, carefully made in Japan — not mass-produced.