Higashi-Tateyama Tenkū Course

This easy walking trail starts at a 2,030-meter summit reached by a six-minute gondola from Hoppo Onsen and descends to the Takamagahara Summer Lift gondola below. The 75-minute course passes through a 100,000-square-meter alpine botanical garden with around 500 plant species, many blooming between June and September. Mt. Higashidate hosted events during the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics and still draws skiers in winter. From the summit viewing platform on a clear day, you can see almost the entire Shiga Highlands, the Northern Japanese Alps, and all five peaks of the Hokushin-Gogaku range in northern Nagano.