What other travelers are saying about Shishiiwa Observatory
Last gondola station with view point, small restaurant, gift shop, and washroom.
View point is great with lots of photo stops. Recommend going in mornings early and only if weather is good. You are pretty high up so if weather is bad you won’t see the view.
There are lots of hiking trails from here to surrounding mountains and shrines if you have time.
This place is right beside the ropeway station. It has a decent view even in this foggy weather.
You can either get here via a 1hour + hike or take the ropeway up. This observatory has a better view than the one at the peak today due to the fog. The visibility was so low at the peak that I cannot see what I saw from this viewpoint.
The ropeway costs 1000 yen per direction and operates until 4:30pm if you are hiking do take note as after the ropeway stops you have to walk down.
When I came up they were already announced that due to strong wind the service might be temporarily suspended. I hiked anyways thinking that it will get better. However, I was wrong when I returned. I checked the wind forecast, it was predicted to maintain till 6pm.
In the end, I was forced to walk down, it was definitely not easy, so do listen to the ropeway station announcement and plan ahead.
Visited at 27 Mar 2025
April 10th, 2023:
It takes a little while to get to the top, but well worth it. Stunning views of the ocean from the lookout area. The water is clear blue. You can get lost while staring at the abyss of the ocean. It's rather soothing I find. A friendly reminder of how small we are on this massive planet.
Cheers.
Beautiful ;to see the view of the sea. And it’s more or less what you would see up at mount Misen (without the deers)in case you do not have the time to reach there. From here to the Mount Misen,it is said to take 30mins going and 30mins coming but we started our walk from here at 3:36pm to mount Misen and we reached up there at 3:58pm and returned back to the cabin station at 4:19pm for the last cabin lift at 4:30pm but we walked fast/running a bit.
Since there was long queue of people starting at 4pm and delay on the part of the cabin etc,the last time for the cabin lift to go down was extended to accommodate everyone that had lined up. That was nice;Thanks!
Pretty area with little tubes that point in the direction of notable sights. There is a pagoda for sitting to rest. The sights are beautiful, and on a clear day, you can see out across the Seto Islands
