Nature Observatory

← All cameras

Region

Kanagawa Live Cameras in Japan — 2 official webcams

Steam rising from Owakudani on Mount Hakone, and the Dankazura approach to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura. One prefecture holding both a volcanic crater floor and an avenue of cherry trees.

What you can see

Two cameras of completely different character. Owakudani on Mount Hakone is a Japan Meteorological Agency camera on a volcano under constant watch, showing a crater floor with white steam rising from vents across the slope. A small eruption in 2015 closed Owakudani to visitors.

Dankazura, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu is streamed by a Kamakura confectioner from its own building on Wakamiya-oji. Dankazura is a raised walkway running down the middle of the approach, lined on both sides with cherry trees. A vermilion torii stands at the far end of the frame, and the pavement on the right is the way up to the shrine.

The white slope at Owakudani was not made by eruption alone. Around 3,000 years ago the flank of Mount Kami, at the centre of Hakone, collapsed on a large scale and the debris blocked a valley. The water that pooled behind the blockage is Lake Ashi; the hollow left where the flank gave way is Owakudani. The place now venting steam and the lake known as a resort came out of the same single event. What the camera shows is the inside of that collapse scar.

2 cameras in Kanagawa

1 video, 1 still. Tap one to open it in the camera list.

When to watch

Steam at Owakudani shows best when the air is cold and damp. It stands whitest on winter mornings and thins into the background on a summer afternoon. Hakone spends a lot of days inside cloud, so a blank white screen is not unusual.

Dankazura is strongly seasonal. The cherries come in early April and arch over the walkway; at New Year the pavements fill with people visiting the shrine, and on a summer weekday all you get is deep shade. The stream is published in a window that opens on top of the operator page, so after pressing the button, wait on that page for the picture to appear.

Closer looks at cameras here

Agencies publishing the cameras on this 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.

To filter or re-sort, go to the camera list. You can narrow the cameras by format, region, subject and provider.