During Golden Week, I joined a bus tour traveling mainly in Hokuriku area for three days.
Spring is in full bloom.
In Tulip Festival a great many flowers were blooming. There were so many people visiting there, as Covid measures were finally being eased. But much more flowers were seen in the bright spring day.
This is indeed that spring has come at last after a long dark winter.
In the course of the tour, the bus took us to Shirakawa-go, Murodo and Kurobe dam.
Shirakawa area is designated World Heritage site, where the typical old houses in snowy region are well preserved. In a nice little twist, the poor access to the snowy mountainous village prevented people outside the community from coming and the village folk protected their old environment and culture.
Murodo is famous for the deep snow and good for tourism in April and May. In winter, the roads located nearly 2500 meters above sea level were blocked by snow. Because of the snowdrift, sometimes over 20 meters of snow accumulation can be observed. In spring the snow is cleared away and piled up on the both side of the road. They look like great walls and tourists can walk between them.
This spring the accumulation height is 13 meters, which is shorter than usual, probably because of the warm temperature. As for me, it was spectacular to walk on the road but those who have come a long time ago were a little bit disappointed at the shorter walls…