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Miyagi Live Cameras in Japan — 2 official webcams

The Okama crater lake on Mount Zao, and the geese and ducks of Izunuma. One camera on a pool of emerald water, one on a flock that lifts off en masse on winter mornings.

What you can see

One waterbird camera from the Ministry of the Environment, one volcano camera from the Japan Meteorological Agency. Izunuma is a shallow Ramsar-listed marsh, and water and sky take up most of the frame; outside the goose season it is simply a quiet stretch of water.

Okama on Mount Zao is a crater lake, and the camera sits over on Mount Katta. Being up on the ridge, the weather turns fast — visible and whited-out swap places within a single day. Whether it is clear is something you find out by opening it.

The three sit in one prefecture at wildly different heights. Izunuma is a shallow marsh on lowland a few metres above sea level; Katta-dake, where the Zao camera stands, is over 1,700 m. That is a gap of roughly 1,700 m. Open both at the same hour of the same day and it is perfectly ordinary for one to show water and reed beds while the other is above the cloud. Within a single prefecture you can put a lowland wetland and a crater lake on a ridge side by side.

2 cameras in Miyagi

All 2 are still images. Tap one to open it in the camera list.

When to watch

Izunuma is a shallow Ramsar-listed marsh, and what makes it worth watching is sheer number rather than any single bird. Waterfowl, greater white-fronted geese above all, crowd in for the winter, and the mass dawn departure from the roost is what the place is known for. It happens around sunrise — roughly 6:30 a.m. in winter, though weather shifts it, so open a little early and wait.

On Mount Zao, the colour of the water in the Okama crater is the whole point, but the Zao Echo Line closes in winter and the camera spends more days under fog and snow. For the colour, come on a clear day between early summer and autumn.

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.

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