Live camera
Sarobetsu Mire live camera — Toyotomi, Hokkaido
One of Japan's largest raised bogs, running to the horizon. On a clear day Mount Rishiri floats beyond the sea.
Sample August 2026What you are looking at
One of the largest raised bogs in Japan, marshland running to the horizon. On clear days Mount Rishiri floats beyond the sea.
A raised bog is one where dead plants pile up without decomposing until the ground itself is lifted, kept damp by rainfall alone. Here that layer of peat has accumulated several metres thick, so the time it took is held under a plain that looks flat.
This mire once came close to drying out. Drainage ditches were cut for farmland from the 1960s and peat was dug for fuel, and the water table fell. Since the 2000s the ditches have been blocked to bring the water back, so the wetness in the frame is partly the result of that repair.
Peat builds up at less than a millimetre a year. A few metres of it therefore stands for a few thousand years. The flat ground under your feet is that span of time, stacked up. This is part of Rishiri-Rebun-Sarobetsu National Park, an unusual pairing that puts islands across the water and an open moor inside one park. Mount Rishiri in the distance is 1,721 metres high and stands about 50 kilometres away.
Late June into early July is the season. Day lilies bloom across the whole expanse and the moor turns yellow; then, towards mid-July, the white heads of cotton grass sway. From late September into October the grasses turn and the whole marsh goes red-brown. Winter reduces it to an unbroken snowfield, but the air is clear then, so the odds of seeing Mount Rishiri are good.
For Rishiri, come in the evening; for the flowers, in the morning. Updates come once an hour.
About this camera
| Place | Toyotomi, Hokkaido |
| Format | Still, hourly |
| Time zone | Asia/Tokyo (UTC+9) |
| Category | Nature |
| Operator | Ministry of the Environment — Internet Nature Institute |
| Terms of use | PDL 1.0 |
The operator's own page
The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.
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