Kamikochi Kappa-bashi Live Camera – Hotaka Peaks, Japan

This 24/7 live camera from Gosenjaku Hotel Kamikochi looks out over Kappa-bashi, the symbol of Kamikochi, with the Hotaka mountain range rising behind it, in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.

Kamikochi is a high mountain valley at about 1,500 metres in Chūbu-Sangaku National Park, in the Northern Japanese Alps. The wooden suspension bridge Kappa-bashi crosses the clear Azusa River, and from it the jagged Hotaka peaks, including Okuhotaka-dake, the third-highest mountain in Japan, fill the view.

## Visiting Kamikochi

• Open roughly from late April to mid-November
• Private cars banned; access by bus or taxi
• Trailhead for climbs into the Northern Alps

The valley was popularised internationally by the British missionary Walter Weston, who is honoured with a festival each year. Spring brings fresh green and lingering snow, summer draws hikers and climbers, and October paints the larches gold. In winter the valley closes and lies under deep snow. The stream is provided by 五千尺ホテル上高地 (Gosenjaku Hotel Kamikochi).