I and some ALT friends decided to use our day of freedom to hike Takatsuboyama, which is the only mountain worth mentioning within the immediate vicinity of Arakawa (I climbed partway up this mountain in August, what I thought was the summit turned out to not be). It's not terribly tall- probably less than 1,000 meters (the height wasn't posted), but it is steep and comes straight up from sea level, so it's a good hike if you have several hours free. The weather was strikingly beautiful, as was the mountain itself, but there wasn't anything that remarkable in terms of things to write about, so I'm just going to post photos with a caption or two, and leave it at that.
Flo and Naomi, my companions on the journey:
This scene is pretty typical of what you might see anywhere in the inaka (rural Japan) in the Spring. Things are sprouting all over the mountains, and people are starting to get out and work in their fields:
The forest on Takastuboyama is mostly beech trees, which in addition to putting out pretty spring leaflets (first photo), also warped into a variety of fantastic forms (second photo). I'm not sure why this was, but we encountered a number of shapes on the way up that were more like wind-sculpted rock than still-living wood.
Some signs of spring on the trail- everything putting out leaflets and blossoms:
I could have sworn that these were violets...but they look yellow to me. Are they not violets, or is there some yellow variety I wasn't aware of?
At summit of the mountain, there was a Jizo statue, clad in the standard red cap:
Finally, this is the view looking out over Sakamachi:
That's all that's to be said about Takatsuboyama, really. Spring keeps warming up, and things keep getting greener and more beautiful. I'm hoping to take advantage of the good weather while it lasts, since the rainy season is supposed to start soon. Next time I have some time, I'll put up some photos from my day-trip to Hagurosan. Until then, またね.
No comments:
Post a Comment