Mt. Kongo: A Climb to the Webcam

An hour's drive from Osaka, Mt. Kongo is the perfect mountain for a casual hike. Attracting many visitors is a live webcam located at the mountain top. The webcam captures a photo once an hour, and the image is posted on Mt. Kongo's website. Some people have made it a daily routine to be punctually photographed at their preferred hour. There's even a family that uses the camera as a way to indirectly communicate with their son who has become distant. Others meet for the first time in front of the camera, and become friends. We spent 3 days with people coming and going on the mountain top as they preserve a single moment of their lives on camera.