Hachimantai aspite line snow corridor

Hi,

I'm planning a trip to Tohoku in late April/early May 2012. I'd like to see the snow corridor along the Hachimantai Aspite Line, but will need to catch a bus. A few questions:

1. Will the buses that travel from Morioka to Hachimantai and Tazawako travel through the snow corridor?

2. I'll be coming from Hirosaki. Would the following route be feasible in a day:

Train to Morioka, bus to Hachimantai, sightseeing, then continue to Tazawako by bus, overnight at Tazawako?

Might spend a night somewhere at/near Hachimantai summit, before continuing on to Tazawako the next day if it would be too rushed. Also considering Nyuto onsen.

3. If anyone could direct me to timetables for buses between Morioka and HAchimantai,and Hachimantai and Tazawa-ko that would be great-not much luck finding anything current :(

Many thanks :)

Too lazy to repeat myself here, but take a look at the following thread in another forum discussion and see whether the information is still useful. Let's hope it doesn't need any update.
http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic-g298237-i8066-k3074344-Travel_from...

BTW, is the following snow corridor you are after!?
http://www.atca.info/goldline/walk/index.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mihai-apostu/450708827/

Thanks William, I had found that thread in my web travels and found it very useful :) I emailed the folks at the Tazawa-ko tourist office also, who confirmed:
"There are buses going to Hachimantai from Tazawako Station.
This bus line through the corridor Hachimantai Asupite snow.
The bus will depart the Tazawako station at 9:20/11:20/12:20.
The bus will depart the Hachimantai at 10:00/1:00pm/3:00pm.'

Wow, that corridor looks amazing! It seems to open significantly earlier than the one I was looking at though, which is this one: http://www.city.semboku.akita.jp/en/sightseeing/spot/01_yuki.html

I am from Australia, where such a thing would be unimaginable.

http://www.ugokotsu.co.jp/ug/rosen/jikoku/da08.pdf

Is the above bus schedule you have already got!? I eventually manage to dig it up from my disorganized references (have to do something about all these mess, lol!)

How I envy your visit at the right time of the year. We went for the more touristy Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route a few years back but were unable to walk the snow corridor in Murodo due to heavy snow storm. The Golden Line in Hakkoda-san is on our radar and hopefully one day we can follow your foot steps.

Enjoy your snow corridor walk and most likely also cherry blossom in Hirosaki. Appreciate if you can come back and share your experience.

Yes that's the same timetable-thanks for the link.
We will definitely be going to Hirosaki to see the cherry blossoms, and probably Kakunodate as well- am thinking of catching the Akita Nairiku train http://www.akita-nairiku.com/ .
I travelled across the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route a few years ago, but this was on the last day before the winter closure, so no snow corridor unfortunately!

This is the specific train we were thinking of catching, as an alternative to approaching Tazawako/Hachimantai and Kakunodate through Morioka:

http://www.akita-nairiku.com/info/specialtrain/item.php?id=249

Am I correct that it runs on the 22nd & 23rd April, then from 28th April to 4th May? My Japanese is pretty basic at best.

The months and days on the train schedule are as you said, but it was last year schedule. Don't know whether there is any change this year. I suppose you can keep monitoring the webpage for any update.

If you are going from Akita to Hirosaki/Aomori, the Gono Line is another scenic rail journey you can consider.
http://www.jreast.co.jp/akita/gonosen/index.html
http://aomori.photo-web.cc/gonou2/01.html

I plan to travel in Tohoku in the same period this year. Unfortunately my japanese language is zero. So all links that you discussed about, I don't understand at all. Could you help for any translation? Or english website?

what specific information are you looking for!?