Japan Van Life Ch 19 – A day trip to Kurobe Dam for some pretty dam good curry 🍛
Standing at 186m tall and 1,500m above sea level, Kurobe Dam is Japan’s highest and largest arch dam. The dam took the cumulative effort of 10 million men 7 years to build between 1956 and 1963 and over 170 laborers lost their lives in the process. Between Jun 26 and October 15, you can watch 10 tons of water passing through the dam every second and we were lucky to catch it on its final discharge.
The dam is a huge triumph of engineering and generates one billion kWh per year (certainly enough to make our solar panels envious!), but aside from these fun facts, the dam’s lake and alpine views are gorgeous and the chance of seeing a double rainbow makes this one dam beautiful place for a day trip from the Japanese Alps. To roughly quote someone’s Google review, it’s a good experience for the lazy to climb a mountain without any of the physical labor!
Although we didn’t exert ourselves much during our trip, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try some of the famed “dam curry” that warmed the hearts and stomachs of the workers while here, too!
While you can eat Japan’s famous “dam curry rice” at the dam rest area, we opted for a more low key, cheaper option at Yakishi no Yu – the only onsen in the area to open its doors to daytrippers, so it was a win-win for us!
📍LOCATION
Kurobe Dam, Toyama Prefecture (黒部ダム)
Eat dam curry rice at Yakushi no Yu, Omachi Onsen (薬師の湯、大町温泉)
🚐 Watch more!
Our last van life video:
Exploring Japan’s Black SAMURAI CASTLE City
🛠Our camping car DIY video
EXCITED FOR THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME?
Hop onboard and never miss a minute of the journey! 🚐🇯🇵 SUBSCRIBE & TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS🔔
osharejpn.kb@gmail.com
❤️HELP KEEP THE JOURNEY GOING:
Ko-fi one-off donations:
💌 Receive gifts from around Japan by signing up for one of our Ko-fi exclusive memberships:
Thank you (and big love!) to our current monthly Ko-fi club members Eric, Natalie, Yuki, Jen, Mel, Ian & Melissa for supporting our travels ❤️
____________________________________________________
Who or what is OshareJapan?
Hi! We’re Kiwi 🇬🇧 and Bear 🇯🇵, collectively known as OshareJapan. おしゃれ (o-sha-re) is a Japanese term for anything trendy, stylish or cool. OshareJapan = cool Japan! We are an international married couple based in Japan (funnily enough) in our secondhand van, which we converted into a mini home to travel freely around Japan to show you what it has to offer. If you like what you see, don’t forget to subscribe to keep up with our adventures! ❤️
____________________________________________________
#japanchannel #vanlifejapan #黒部ダム
AloJapan.com