Autumn begins to deepen in Japan. The leaves have begun to turn red, brown and yellow in the Tokyo metropolitan area. One of the most famous places for enjoying autumn leaves is Hakone in a western suburb of Tokyo. I recently visited this resort area with my family. Our destination was Mt. Komagatake, which is one of the peaks of the central cone of Hakone Caldera. Its peak is 1,356 meters above sea level.
To visit Mt. Komagatake, Hakone Komagatake Ropeway is convenient. The route was originally opened by Izu-Hakone Railway in 1963, and currently operated by Seibu Prince Hotels Worldwide Company. It's a four-cables cross type aerial tramway. Connecting Hakone-en on the shore of Lake Ashinoko and Komagatake-chojo station at the summit of Mt. Komagatake stations, its route length is 1,783 meters. The height difference between the two stations is 590.8 meters. Its maximum inclination is 30.3 degrees. The gondola is operated every 20 minutes. It takes about 7 minutes to go one way. The present gondolas, namely Ashinoko (Number 1) and Komagatake (Number 2), were built by CWA Switzerland in 1986 as the 2nd generation ones. Each gondola can accommodate up to 101 passengers.
After arriving at the Komagatake-sancho station, we enjoyed beautiful autumn leaves of Mt. Komagatake and adjacent Lake Ashinoko. In addition to that, we could clearly see Mt. Fuji (3,776 meters above sea level) in the north. There was less snowfall than average this year, so, we couldn’t see a snow-capped peak. Was it an effect of global warming?
