Zao Onsen Uenodai
About the Zao Onsen Uenodai Camera
This camera covers the Uenodai area of Zao Onsen, a hot spring town and ski resort straddling the Yamagata-Miyagi border. Zao is famous worldwide for its 'juhyo,' or snow monsters, ice- and rime-encrusted trees that form on the upper slopes each winter.
Beyond the snow monsters, Zao Onsen is one of Japan's oldest hot spring resorts, with highly acidic sulfur waters said to date back over 1,900 years.
The snow monsters need three things at once, which is why so few places produce them: a stand of Aomori-todomatsu fir, a steady one-directional wind off Siberia, and supercooled droplets that stay liquid below freezing until they strike a branch and set instantly. Layer on layer, that builds the shapes. The hot spring water below is at the other extreme, acidic enough at around pH 1.5 to sit in the range of lemon juice.
Highlights & Nearby
- •Watch for: ski slope and snow conditions, skiers and lift activity, snow monster season in Jan-Mar
- •Nearby: Zao Onsen hot spring baths, Zao Ropeway, Zao Okama crater lake (summer)
- •Note: the snow monsters are best seen from January through early March, when rime ice builds up thickest
