Mount Kami Audio Guide

Mount Kami: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Mount Kami

   Welcome to Mount Kami, the highest peak in Hakone, in Kanagawa, Japan. It rises 1,438 meters, or 4,718 feet, and it sits at the center of the great volcanic complex known as Mount Hakone. Its name is written with the characters for god and mountain, and you will often see it called Kamiyama too. Everything in this guide is about the mountain itself: the volcano that built it, the sacred reputation behind its name, and the trails that lead toward its summit. Think of Mount Kami as the youngest and tallest member of a family of volcanic cones. Around it, the landscape tells a story of enormous eruptions, collapsed slopes, steaming valleys and a famous lake. Over the next few minutes we will look at how the mountain formed, why people revered it, and what it takes to walk up it today.

2. 02

   A Volcano Built in Stages

   Mount Kami is the crowning peak of a complex volcano. Mount Hakone began about 500,000 years ago, and two huge explosive eruptions, about 180,000 years ago and then between 49,000 and 60,000 years ago, left it truncated by two overlapping calderas. The largest of them measures 10 by 11 kilometers across. Inside that vast bowl, new eruptions began about 50,000 years ago and raised the central cones. Mount Kami, Mount Koma and other peaks belong to this group. Lava domes grew progressively toward the south, and the largest and youngest of them is Mount Kami, which is why it forms the high point of Hakone today. It was also the last of the Hakone volcanoes to remain active. So when you look at this mountain, you are looking at the most recent chapter of a half-million-year story, built inside the ruins of earlier eruptions.

3. 03

   The Day the Mountain Broke Open

   About 3,000 years ago, Mount Kami's most dramatic moment arrived. A steam-driven explosion, called a phreatic eruption, tore through the northwest side of the mountain, and part of the slope collapsed. The landslide dammed the valley's outlet, and that blockage is what formed Lake Ashi, one of Hakone's best-loved sights. The same event created the steaming valley of Owakudani on the mountain's slopes. Today Owakudani is the place where the volcano still shows its pulse. Sulfurous steam vents from the ground, hot springs bubble, and the landscape has a distinctive yellow tinge from volcanic gases. Seen from the heights, the mountain looks down on the valley where the geothermal activity is closest to the surface. That same underground heat feeds the hot spring baths that made Hakone famous, so the peak you see and the onsen towns below are part of one connected story.

4. 04

   Mountain of the Gods

   The name says it all. Mount Kami has been revered as a mountain of the gods since ancient times. Among the Hakone volcanoes, it and neighboring Mount Koma have long been objects of mountain worship in certain sects of the Shinto religion, and Mount Kami in particular was thought of as the mountain where the gods reside. A twelfth-century document records that the worship of Mount Hakone and its highest peak began in the time of the legendary Emperor Kōshō. That origin belongs to legend, but the reverence it describes is well recorded. The mountain's look matches its mystique. Mount Koma, battered by wind, is grassy, while Mount Kami is covered with thick forests of beech and dwarf ash. In later centuries, travelers saw this rugged region with a mixture of fear and reverence. The difficult terrain was so daunting that the main route was once diverted northward to avoid Hakone. Only later, as hot springs and scenery drew visitors from Edo, did the mountains become a beloved retreat.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   If you want to meet Mount Kami on foot, climbing is a popular pastime in the Hakone area. Conditions around Owakudani and Mount Kami can change, so check the official advisories from the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Hakone Town Office before you go. Stay on marked trails, avoid lingering in the sulfurous gases at Owakudani, and carry plenty of water and sturdy footwear. As you look up at the peak or down into the steaming valley, try to picture the layers of history in one view: eruptions older than any human story, a lake born from a landslide, and a summit that people once called the dwelling place of the gods. What else will you notice?