Showing posts with label southern japanese alps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label southern japanese alps. Show all posts

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 (^-^)/