Kiyotsu Gorge Tunnel in Niigata prefecture, Japan ( Kiyotsukyo Gorge, Panorama Station, Periscope )

Kiyotsu Gorge Tunnel in Niigata prefecture, Japan ( Kiyotsukyo Gorge, Panorama Station, Periscope )

Kiyotsukyo is located less than 20 minutes from the Shiozawa Ishiuchi Interchange on the Kanetsu Expressway. On the way, the road branches off from the national road and goes down a steep slope, but the road was nicely paved until the end. I thought it was deep in the mountains when I looked at the map, but it is a well-known tourist spot and access is very good. There are three parking lots, No.1, No.2 and No.3. There is a public toilet along the river opposite the parking lot No.1. It is strongly recommended to use the toilet here before heading into the tunnel. There is a toilet in the tunnel, but it is small and cannot accommodate large numbers of people as it is built to serve as an ornamental object. The area around the sign was under construction, so it was not possible to get very good footage. There is a large hot spring hotel right next to the tunnel. The tunnel is dug along this river. It is a three-minute walk from the car park No.1 to the tunnel entrance, which is completely paved, with no hills or stairs. You head towards the entrance, enjoying the good air, the sound of the river running and the wonderful views. Before you reach the tunnel, there is a facility called Periscope. It is a new building, built at the same time as the tunnel renovation in 2018. There is a souvenir shop and café on the ground floor and a free footbath on the upper floor. Visitors can soak in the footbath and see the outside scenery reflected in the mirrors on the ceiling. That’s why it’s called Periscope. The name of the artist who renovated the tunnel and turned it into a work of art is given here. There is a notice on the website regarding the setting of high season prices. The off-season general adult fee is 1000 yen, but from 21 April the high season fee will be 1200 yen. It was said to be an overtourism measure, so I think it was kind of inevitable. The system will be amended from 19 July, so on this day I was able to enter for ¥1,000. Furthermore, it seems that there will be days when you cannot enter without a reservation. I guess it’s too popular that during the high season, the tunnel will be so crowded that it is so difficult to get in. This is the entrance to the tunnel. You buy a ticket from the ticket machine here and show it to the attendant to enter. Entry starts at 8.30 am. There were about ten visitors lined up in front of the closed gate. When the gate opened, almost all of them walked out at once towards the end of the tunnel. Few people looked at the exhibits placed by the side of the passageway. There are three viewing platforms before the end of the tunnel, but they do not stop there. Everyone seemed to be thinking that they wanted to get to the famous viewing spot before the others and take as many photos as they could before it got too crowded. I had planned it that way from the beginning, so I headed non-stop to the end of the tunnel without paying attention to the spots along the way. It is 750 metres long and takes about one hour to walk there and back, according to the brochure. Walking straight to the end point, the time taken from the entrance to the end point was about 9 minutes. It is a very long distance to reach the first viewing platform, but there are exhibits along the way and the lighting changes colours so that you don’t get bored of walking. There is a green zone, a yellow zone and a red zone, but if they were shown in order, the length would be too long, so I will send you all three zones at once. Eerie background music kept blaring from the speakers installed at the exhibits in the red zone. I arrived at the first observatory. This is a plain observatory with no particular decorations. The columnar jointed rock surface, seen from inside the dimly lit observatory, looks like it is coming right before your eyes and is very impressive. The columnar joints are formed when magma cools and hardens into hexagonal pencil-like shapes. Each pencil is hard, but the whole rock is not a monolith, so it is fragile and easily collapses. Head to the next lookout. The second lookout is a world of black and white stripes. A large object in the middle of the passageway, blocking the passage, is a toilet. The third observatory is illuminated in orange. The mirrors affixed to the walls are said to be designed to resemble dewdrops. Kiyotsukyo was designated a national place of scenic beauty and natural monument in 1941 because of the beauty of the gorge and its columnar joints. In 1949, the area was designated as Joshinetsu Kogen National Park. In July 1988, a rockfall accident along the Kiyotsu River closed the tourist footpath. In 1992, construction of a footpath tunnel was started to ensure safe tourism in the Kiyotsu Gorge. In 1996, the tunnel was completed, but the number of tourists gradually declined since then. When the tunnel was repaired and reopened in 2018, the water mirror at the end of the tunnel became a hot topic as a photogenic spot, and it quickly became a popular spot. The number of visitors, which had once fallen to around 50,000 a year, now exceeds 300,000 a year. During the high season, the tunnel becomes so crowded that people cannot fit through it, and as a countermeasure, it was announced on the website that a seasonal fee system and an advance booking system are planned to be introduced from July 2025. At the end of the corridor, there is a gentle curve that makes a 180° turn in the direction of travel. The pale blue lighting gradually increases the sense of anticipation for the end of the tunnel. Natural light coming in from outside is now visible. I have reached the end of the tunnel, the Panorama Station. The opening of this viewing platform faces back towards the entrance. There is a warning sign to avoid queuing up when taking photos, as the flow of people should not be held up at the viewing spot. This is the end of the video. Thank you for watching.

contents
00:00 opening
01:14 Parking No.1
03:00 Periscope
04:44 Entrance
06:42 Observatory 1
08:10 Observatory 2
09:44 Observatory 3
11:11 history
13:27 Panorama Station

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