Day-3 Climbing Down: Trekking to Mt. Tsurugidake in the Northern Japan Alps 北アルプス剱岳

Mt. Tsurugidake 剱岳 → 10th Chain Point Kani-no-yokobai カニのよこばい → Mt. Maetsurugi 前剱 → Kenzanso 剣山荘 (Lodge) → Raichozawa Hyutte 雷鳥沢ヒュッテ (Lodge)

Table of Contents

10th Chain Point Kani-no-yokobai カニのよこばい
Long Ladder
Raichozawa Hyutte 雷鳥沢ヒュッテ (Lodge)
1. Information
2. Hot Springs
  1. The Bathroom inside the Lodge 内湯 Uchiyu
  2. The Annex Bathhouse 外湯 Sotoyu

10th Chain Point Kani-no-yokobai カニのよこばい

10th Chain Point Kani-no-yokobai カニのよこばい

ONE-WAY TRAIL
ONLY FOR TREKKERS CLIMBING DOWN
Step down the cliff carefully!

Long Ladder

You will sometimes come across sections where there are two separate one-way trails, one for climbing up, and the other for climbing down.
In the photo above, the trail with the Japanese sign 下山 painted on the rock beside it is for trekkers who are climbing down Mt. Tsurugidake.

After the 13th Chain Point you will walk down the same trails below.

→ Mt. Maetsurugi 前剱 → Kenzanso 剣山荘 (Lodge) → Raichozawa camp site 雷鳥沢キャンプ場 → Raichozawa Hyutte 雷鳥沢ヒュッテ (Lodge)

You will return to Raichozawa camp site 雷鳥沢キャンプ場 using the same trails previously described in this guide. Therefore, the descriptions have been omitted.

Raichozawa Hyutte 雷鳥沢ヒュッテ (Lodge)

Information

Lodge name
Raichozawa Hyutte 雷鳥沢ヒュッテ

Website (in Japanese)

登山とハイキングの宿「雷鳥沢ヒュッテ」立山・地獄谷・みくりが池の山小屋

立山・地獄谷・みくりが池の登山には温泉のある山小屋「雷鳥沢ヒュッテ」をご利用ください。ロッジ立山連峰は台風＆雪害の為、今期営業の見込みが立っておりません。

Seasonal business
Summer season (End of June - Early in October)

Reservation and Contact
TEL/FAX 076-463-1835

Off season (Mid October - Mid April)
TEL/FAX 076-482-1617

Camp site
Raichozawa camp site 雷鳥沢キャンプ場 Raichozawa-camp-jou is available near this lodge.

Price
It includes tax, hot springs fee, dinner and breakfast.
This accommodation fee is as of in April 2020.

1-night private room for 2 people: 12000 yen / person
1-night private room for 3 people: 11000 yen / person
1-night private room for 4 people: 10500 yen / person
1-night dormitory: 9800 yen / person
1-night without meals 7000 yen / person (Private room is not available for this.)

This lodge offers only one kind of a set meal for each dinner and for each breakfast to be taken in the dining room.

Help yourself to free refills of rice, miso soup and Japanese tea.

If you would like to have the battery of your smartphone charged for free, then feel free to ask the reception and leave it at the reception. You can't come back to get it during the night because the reception is closed.

Map of The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan 国土地理院の地図

Lodge capacity
250 persons

Check in
Please check in and pay the bill at this reception when you arrive at the lodge. (You can leave without checking out.) You should take off your shoes in front of the reception of the lodge, and put on slippers when you are staying in the lodge. You should put your shoes in the shoe box in your room, not the entrance of the lodge.

Menu
(It is as of in 2017. Maybe it is changed now.)

Available until 2:00 pm

Beef Bowl 1000 yen (牛丼 Gyudon)
Chinese Bowl 1000 yen (中華丼 Chukadon), Vegetables and bits of meat
Cury Rice 1000 yen (カレー)
Fried Rice 1000 yen (チャーハン Chahan)
Ramen ラーメン 1000 yen
Udon うどん 1000 yen, A type of noodles
Zenzai ぜんざい 500 yen, Sweet red bean soup
Oden おでん 500 yen, Stewed ingredients in the Japanese-style broth
Takoyaki たこやき 500 yen, Octopus dumplings

Available until 9:00 pm

Draft beer 900 yen (生ビール)
Coffee 400 yen
Canned beer (350ml 400yen, 500ml ? yen)

Dormitory

You should take off your shoes in front of the reception of the lodge, and then put your shoes in the shoe box in your room, not the entrance of the lodge.

There is no actual private bed furniture for each person like a bunk bed in this lodge. You will need to share a flat space with them.

There is sufficient bedding such as mattresses, blankets and pillows in the dormitory. You do not need to bring your own sleeping bag.
Please make your own bed yourself when you want to sleep.

When you leave the lodge, please stack your used bedding on your sleeping space in the room.

Don't return them to the place for unused bedding, because the lodge wants to differentiate between used and unused bedding for cleaning.

Hot Springs

GOOD!
When I was bathing at this lodge, I was pleasantly surprised there was no chlorine smell. They must not add it to the water, or if they do, only slightly.

I like going to Japanese hot springs and public baths in Japan, but I hate the baths that are strongly chlorinated, because after taking those kinds of baths, my body smells like chlorine more than body soap and shampoo.
Recently, many places have been using a lot of chlorine for killing germs in the bathtub.
The reason for this is unsanitary issues caused people to become sick or die from bacteria.
Then, public offices made the rules to sterilize chemically baths.
Nowadays, the baths that have no chlorine smell are rare and difficult to find.

Two types of bathrooms are available at this lodge.

The Bathroom inside the Lodge 内湯 Uchiyu

The type of bathroom inside the lodge is quite spacious, and hot water in the bath is clean and clear.
(Open 24 hours a day for the lodge guests)

This bathroom is really old. There are some sets of taps of hot and cold water but there is no shower.

Mixing hot and cold water using the two taps was annoying, especially since the hot water didn't come fast.
Instead, you can get hot water from the bathtub using the basin but be careful not to get soap bubbles in the tub.

The entrances of the bathrooms inside the lodge are separated for men and women.

There is a shared walkway between the Bathroom inside the Lodge and
the Annex Bathhouse.

The Annex Bathhouse 外湯 Sotoyu

The other bathroom is located next to the lodge, and this type is called "Genen Kakenagashi 源泉かけ流し" in Japanese. Its hot water comes from a 100% hot spring resource of Jigokudani Valley 地獄谷 of the active volcano zone. It is always running and not recycled.

There is only one door for both women and men to the annex bathhouse that is located next to the lodge. However, in front of the annex bathhouse, the entrances of the bathrooms are also separated for men and women.

If you want to take a bath at both of these bathrooms, you have to put your clothes back on when you switch baths as there's a short distance of the shared walkway for women and men between the bathrooms.
When I was at the lodge, I tried to switch to another bathroom with only my underpants on, but I don't think women would want to do the same thing.

This hot spring water is somewhat cloudy and muddy and, while not boiling, is very hot.
There is an oar if you want to mix the bath.

The color of the lever for the tap is red but it only has cold water. Normally, red is for hot water though.

Note
If nobody else is in the bath before you, it will be too hot for you to get into the tub. Please adjust the water temperature to your liking using the cold water tap.
Please don't forget to turn off the cold water tap when you come out of the bath.

About The Annex Bathhouse

The men's hot spring bath at this particular lodge is an indoor, open-air bathroom with a beautiful mountain view.
* The women's bath, unfortunately, isn't open-air and doesn't have a view.

In the men's bath, you can't be seen from the outside when you're submerged in the water. However, when you're standing in the room your body is visible. There's very little chance anyone from the outside will notice you, though, because they won't be anywhere near enough to see you, so there's no reason to worry.

外来者·テント宿泊者の皆様へ
入浴できます（有料）1回 700円
外来の営業時間 AM10時~PM19時最終受付は18時半まで
時間外はお断り致します

Use of the bathrooms of the lodge is not limited to lodge guests such as campers. Non-guests need to pay 700 yen.
Business hours for non-guests
10:00 am - 7:00 pm (Last entry is at 6:30 pm.)

It is not available for non-guests because of corona virus as of April 2020.

しめきり
閉
ドアをピタッと閉めて下さいね
Close the door tightly!