Japan Ice cave
Narusawa Ice Cave
0 °C inside, all year.
Kounoichi · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 1,039 m.
The real relief above Narusawa Ice Cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
1,039m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
0°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
114m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
0 °C inside, all year.
Cold winter air sinks into the cave and stays trapped: the ice lasts all year, even when it is hot outside. In August the afternoon reaches 26 °C at the entrance, 26 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 2°-8°Jan
- 3°-6°Feb
- 7°-4°Mar
- 13°2°Apr
- 18°7°May
- 21°12°Jun
- 25°16°Jul
- 26°17°Aug
- 22°13°Sep
- 16°7°Oct
- 11°1°Nov
- 4°-5°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Lava tube in Japan
Narusawa Ice Cave is a ice cave in Japan. The entrance is at 1,039 m. It has ice all year and the shape of a lava tube. It lies within Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Fujikawaguchikonearest town · 2.6 km in a straight line
- 三湖台nearest viewpoint · 2.1 km from the entrance
- Mount Fuji Shizuoka Airport (FSZ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 87 km in a straight lineCar hire at HND airport (Tokyo)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 7other cave entrances within 3 km鳴沢氷穴, 富士風穴, 大室風穴 and 4 more
- 3viewpoints within 3 km三湖台
- 2marked hiking routes within 3 km東海自然歩道, 自然探索路
- 10car parks within 2 km
- 27information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 9bus stops within 2 km
- 8campsites within 8 km本栖湖スポーツセンター キャンプサイト, 本栖湖キャンプ場, 本栖レークサイドキャンプ場 and 5 more
- 35hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmくわるび, 桜庵, じらごんの富士の館 and 32 more
- 4restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Fujikawaguchiko2.6 km in a straight line
- Narusawa3.2 km in a straight line
- Fujiyoshida12 km in a straight line
- Yamanaka17 km in a straight line
- Oshino18 km in a straight line
- Fuefuki18 km in a straight line
- Ichikawadaimon18 km in a straight line
- Isawa20 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Narusawa Ice Cave.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Lakeyas4 lakes within 10 km
Peakyas12 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 2 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 18 | 21 | 25 | 26 | 22 | 16 | 11 | 4 |
| Afternoon | 2 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 18 | 21 | 25 | 26 | 22 | 16 | 11 | 4 |
| Night | -8 | -6 | -4 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 16 | 17 | 13 | 7 | 1 | -5 |
| Rain (mm) | 61 | 71 | 115 | 127 | 140 | 174 | 209 | 159 | 201 | 193 | 85 | 64 |
| Rainy days | 6 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 7 |
| Sun hours/day | 6.1 | 6.1 | 6.1 | 6.2 | 6.1 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 5.6 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 5.4 | 5.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 14 | 14 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 11 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 2 | 2 | -8 | 61 | 6.1 |
| Feb | 3 | 3 | -6 | 71 | 6.1 |
| Mar | 7 | 7 | -4 | 115 | 6.1 |
| Apr | 13 | 13 | 2 | 127 | 6.2 |
| May | 18 | 18 | 7 | 140 | 6.1 |
| Jun | 21 | 21 | 12 | 174 | 4.2 |
| Jul | 25 | 25 | 16 | 209 | 4.5 |
| Aug | 26 | 26 | 17 | 159 | 5.6 |
| Sep | 22 | 22 | 13 | 201 | 4.6 |
| Oct | 16 | 16 | 7 | 193 | 4.6 |
| Nov | 11 | 11 | 1 | 85 | 5.4 |
| Dec | 4 | 4 | -5 | 64 | 5.8 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1,039 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 152% | 74% | 121% | 127% | 71% | 142% | 257% | 35% | 83% | 126% | 26% | 26% |
| 2021 | 135% | 87% | 139% | 92% | 121% | 82% | 162% | 204% | 92% | 55% | 84% | 138% |
| 2022 | 31% | 72% | 85% | 171% | 111% | 81% | 143% | 144% | 151% | 50% | 115% | 58% |
| 2023 | 31% | 70% | 115% | 105% | 168% | 244% | 43% | 122% | 85% | 64% | 87% | 54% |
| 2024 | 71% | 185% | 176% | 112% | 182% | 194% | 67% | 290% | 69% | 124% | 163% | 5% |
| 2025 | 44% | 21% | 132% | 99% | 163% | 93% | 78% | 54% | 125% | 84% | 26% | 76% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Narusawa Ice Cave
Japan
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,039 mEntrance altitude
- 0 °CInside, all year
Fugaku Wind Cave
Japan · 1 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,012 mEntrance altitude
- 0 °CInside, all year
Lake Sai Bat Cave
Japan · 2 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 938 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1965453) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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