Kamikochi Kappa-Bashi - Hida Mountains, Japan

This stunning 4K live camera is broadcast 24 hours a day from the Gosenjaku Hotel in Kamikochi, one of Japan's most celebrated alpine destinations, looking out over the iconic Kappa-Bashi suspension bridge and the spectacular peaks of the Hotaka mountain range beyond. The feed captures one of the most photographed views in the Japanese Alps - a graceful wooden bridge arching over the crystal-clear Azusa River with the snow-dusted ridgelines of the Hida Mountain Range rising dramatically behind in a scene that changes with every season, from the fresh greens of spring through the blazing autumn colours of October and the deep winter snows of the closed season.

Kamikochi is a high-altitude valley in the Hida Mountains of Nagano Prefecture, sitting at approximately 1,500 metres above sea level within the Chubu-Sangaku National Park. Access to the valley is restricted to public transport and authorised vehicles, a policy that has preserved Kamikochi's extraordinary natural character and kept it free from the development that has altered so many comparable mountain destinations around the world. The valley is open to visitors from late April to mid-November each year, closing entirely through the winter months when heavy snowfall renders it inaccessible - making this live camera one of the only ways to witness Kamikochi's winter beauty in real time.

The Kappa-Bashi bridge at the centre of this view is the symbolic heart of Kamikochi, the starting point for the valley's network of hiking trails and the spot where the majority of visitors pause to take in the full grandeur of the surrounding peaks. The Hotaka range visible behind the bridge includes Oku-Hotaka, at 3,190 metres the third highest peak in Japan, whose jagged ridgelines and permanent snowfields dominate the skyline in a landscape that has inspired Japanese painters, writers, and mountaineers for over a century. The crystal clarity of the Azusa River flowing beneath the bridge reflects a water quality that is among the finest in Japan, fed by snowmelt and springs from the surrounding mountains.

The Gosenjaku Hotel, from whose facilities this camera is broadcast, is one of Kamikochi's most historic and celebrated establishments, its name meaning Five Thousand Shaku - a traditional Japanese unit of measurement referring to the valley's altitude. The hotel has welcomed guests seeking mountain tranquillity, clean air, and extraordinary scenery since the early twentieth century, and its live camera has become one of the most watched natural landscape feeds in Japan, attracting viewers from around the world who return daily to check the changing conditions across the seasons.

Did You Know? Kamikochi was largely unknown outside Japan until the late nineteenth century, when British missionary and mountaineer Walter Weston used it as a base for climbing the surrounding peaks. His enthusiasm for the area is credited with founding Japanese recreational mountaineering, and a festival is held in his honour in Kamikochi every June.

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