Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Mountains Make Me Happy...

And Ena has plenty of Mountains!

The beautiful view just up the road from my apartment. The impressive, snow covered peak of Ontake-san, rising 10,049 feet (3,063 m) over the borders of Gifu and neighboring Nagano, is the first thing I see every morning as I walk out my door. Ontake is an active volcano (erupting last in 1980) and one of Japan's holy mountains. The humid haze of summer makes the peak almost invisible. I know that when I stumble out of my door to be greeted by it's graceful, Fuji-esque slopes covered in snow, autumn has arrived.

Whiter than the rocks
Of Stone Mountain
Autumn wind
-Basho

The Southern Japanese Alps. Just a few of the many reasons I'm thankful to be in Ena (^-^)/

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

VERY cool view! Do you pay the rent or does your school/program subsidize it?

Anonymous said...

Me too!!! No se que voy a hacer cuando me vaya de aqui y no tenga mis montanas queridas...

Melissa said...

Cherry: I live in a teacher's apartment owned by the city, so it is subsidized, but I still have to pay.

Abbey: やら!?Que vamos a hacer?

Anonymous said...

Waw, the foliage in your area is spectacular, way more colourful than here in Kyushu!

Melissa said...

Inge, that may be true, but you're in KYUSHU! That has to have its benefits (^_<) Not to mention the fact that Ena is proabably as land-locked as you can get on the island of Honshu! Plenty of mountains, but no beaches.