Michi-no-Eki Kita-Shinshu Yamanouchi

Operated by Yamanouchi town, this camera watches the roadside station on the approach into the mountains of northern Nagano.

Yamanouchi is the gateway to a cluster of well-known places: the Yudanaka and Shibu hot springs, Shiga Kogen higher up, and Jigokudani Monkey Park, where Japanese macaques bathe in the hot spring pools through the winter. Nearly everyone heading to any of them passes this point.

That makes it a practical camera rather than a scenic one. This is where you check whether the road ahead is wet, snow-covered or clear before climbing toward Shiga Kogen — a route that gains well over a thousand metres and can be in completely different conditions from the valley floor.