The interesting thing about Shinhotaka is the vertical distance. The ropeway lifts you from the floor of the Okuhida valley to Nishiho-takaguchi at 2,156 metres in two stages, the second of them on Japan's only double-decker gondola, and because the two ends are so far apart in height they are not in the same season at the same time.

Colour reaches the upper station around late September and then works downward toward the base. Gifu Prefecture gives early to late October as the overall peak, which is a wide window for one place, and the width is the point: whichever week you come, some part of the ride is doing it.

From the observation deck at the top the ridge line lays out in order—Nishi-Hotaka, Kasagatake, and Yarigatake with its distinctive spear of a summit.

It is easy to forget you have arrived by machine. You walk out of a heated station onto a deck at over two thousand metres, and the temperature can be in single digits while the valley you left is at twenty. People step out in shirtsleeves every day of the season and turn straight back. Bring a jacket and put it on before the doors open. Afterwards, the hot springs of Okuhida are on the same road down, which is the reason many people come at all.