What you can see on the Mount Hakkōda cams
Hakkōda gives two kinds of view: the warm ponds and hollows between its cones, where steam can drift over the water on cold mornings, and the line of rounded peaks, which shows whether the summits are clear. In summer the slopes are dense green; in October the low trees turn yellow and copper. From November the snow arrives and does not leave until May, some of the deepest anywhere on earth.
A warm pond below the Hakkōda peaks
The camera stands at the edge of Jigoku-numa, whose name means "hell pond", and looks across the water to the mountains. A railing and a strip of paved ground run along the bottom of the frame. The pond lies in a hollow ringed by low trees and shrubs, and the slopes behind it climb to a dark summit on the left and two rounded peaks further back in the middle.
The water is warm, fed from below by the volcano, and on cold mornings steam can drift across the surface. In October the trees around it turn yellow and copper; from November the hollow disappears under some of the deepest snow on earth.
A long, low look at the range
Unlike the pond camera, this one stands well back from the mountains and takes in the range as a whole. The peaks sit low on the horizon as a line of dark humps, with one higher, rounded summit in the middle, while a wooded slope rises across the right foreground. More than half of the frame is sky.
That much sky is the point: this is a view for reading the weather rather than the ground. It shows whether the summits are clear, where the cloud base sits and when the first snow reaches the tops. The image is small and turns dim under heavy cloud, so a bright day shows it best.
The gas that collects in the hollows
Carbon dioxide seeps from the ground across parts of Hakkōda and, being heavier than air, gathers in dips and snow hollows where there is no wind to clear it. The hazard is real and well signed, and the marked paths keep to safer ground. It is the reason why some attractive-looking dips on the mountain are fenced off rather than open.
When to watch Mount Hakkōda
Japan runs nine hours ahead of UTC. Mornings are generally clearest. Cloud from the Sea of Japan often covers the range for days at a time in winter, so patience helps; the reward is the snow-laden forest on a bright day, which is unlike anything else in the country.
Around Mount Hakkōda
The range sits inside Towada-Hachimantai National Park, within an hour of Aomori city. Sukayu, on the western side, is one of Japan's oldest hot-spring inns and gives its name to the road that crosses the mountains.
Visiting Mount Hakkōda
A ropeway climbs the northern side and runs most of the year, putting the upper slopes within reach without a long walk. Marked trails link the peaks and the ponds in summer. In winter this is avalanche country and the routes need proper equipment and local knowledge.
