Mt. Strange ('Kimyo-san')

There are three chains of mountains between Suzaka and Matsushiro area in the east from Nagano. From north, they are Mt.Myotoku, Mt.Taro, and Mt.Kimyo.

These three have so similar shapes that you might fail to identify. I have ever been to the former two mountains. So I decided to try Mt.Kimyo this time.

A week ago I could see the pretty flowers of Anzu trees but they were no more then;-(

It took an hour and a half to the summit of it. I thought this Mt.Kimyo was more fun than I imagined. On the way back, I went around to Mt.Amakazari too. This one is also a nice mountain. You don't need so much time for it, and you would enjoy it a lot, therefore I really recommend this route.

'Ikariso', fairy wings or horny goatweed in English
View from 'Takami-iwa'
'Kobushi'
View from the top of Mt.Kimyo
'Akebi' flowers, Chocolate vine
View from 'Tachimi-iwa'

'Mizubasho' in Iizuna

Most cherry blossoms are past the time of full bloom this week even here in Nagano area. However, it is really nice to see those flowers that are fluttering and flaking off the trees. I definitely like it. Most Japanese must feel taste for the simple and quiet when seeing such scene.

By the way, I went for a short drive to Iizuna area to see log houses. I found the clumps of 'mizubasho' in bloom along a road on my way. I was a little surprise to see them grow fast as I didn't see anything on the ground when I passed by there a few weeks ago.

They are still small but I believe they would grow more and become more beautiful a few days later.

Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom

There is a famous spot, Garyu Park, where we can enjoy to see cherry blossoms in my town. It's at the foot of Mt. Garyu in Suzaka. We have a pond named as Ryuga-ike there and there are hundreds of cherry blossoms tree around it.

Since it has been very fine and warm days lately, the flowers are now in full bloom this weekend. So many visitors were there today.

I prefer the beuty of falling flowers rather than the full bloom of them. So I look forward to next weekend to enjoy them.

By the way, 'ryu' in Japanase means a dragon. This mountain and the pond have an old folk tale. I can't tell you what exactly is, however, Mt. Garyu means that a large dragon was dead and lied his body there, and then it became a body of mountain long long time ago. When he was dead, he shed a tear and ran into this pond, 'Ryuga-ike'.

ANZUNO SATO, Apricot Park, in Chikuma city

Anzu, apricot, in Chikuma city are reported to be in full bloom this week. I went for a drive to see them with my friend this weekend.

It was very fine this morning and we could see thousands of apricot trees with beautiful views in the back. They are Mt. Iizuna, Takatsuma, and North Alps from the right.

Lately my friends and I are argueing over how to identify cherry blossoms, ume, peach and apricot. How could you identify them? It's so hard to tell that!

To hear that even experts couldn't easily identify ume and apricot, I felt easy to be bothered.

Anyway, it has been nice season to enjoy the flowers blooming by turns. Ume, apricot, cherry blossoms, peach, and apple... How amazing season of the year!

KATAKURI, Dog's tooth violet, in full bloom @Nagano

I visited the place with my friend where we can see a big clump of Katakuri, dog's tooth violet, in Nagano city last Sunday. It is at the foot of Mt. Asahi in Nagano, and famous spot for who know that.

They are very beautiful in full bloom early April every year, and so they are last weekend.

The flower of Katakuri blooms facing downward so it's sometimes difficult to take a nice picture of them. I could finally find the best one and took some photos with my old single lens reflex film camera. I could take some nice photos as below. How do you think?




I must add that the title back image of this blog is the photo I took last year at the same spot.

'SATOYAMA' SEASON IN!

Mt. Karita is located in Obuse town, a next-door town of my city. It's hight is only 786m. I have once climbed it a few years ago. This is the second time.

There are two variation routes to the top. I chose an easy one, from Suberi-yama, because the other one, from Gansho-in, is told to be more tough. Gansho-in is well known for its cealing picture drawn by a famous Japanese artist, Katsushika HOKUSAI.

It took just an hour from the entry to the top. There were not so many flowers yet, but only yellow small flowers of Dankobai (Lindera obutsiloba) were full blooming.

Along the walking path, I found some leaves of "dog's tooth violets". Their flowers tell us that spring has come. They tend to root in dark place and their color of beautiful violet stand out very well in such a place. We, Japanese , tend to love such flowers. Anyway, they may bloom elegant flowers a couple of weeks later.

There is an Azumaya, bower, on the top and I saw all the maountains of Hokushin Gogaku in the line. They were very beautiful. Unfortunately North Alps were hardly seen because of hazing atmosphere then.

Good luck.

'Veronica persica'

When april is coming, this flower starts to bloom in Nagano. It is called as 'OHINUNOFUGURI' in Japanese. It means...a puppy's 'it'. Why?

Anyway, when I see the flowers blooming, I feel spring has come.

Beautiful combination

Last week I saw a beautiful combination of three stars, Jupiter, Venus and the moon in the dusk.
So beautiful I took a photo through the window of my workplace.

Mt. Iizuna.

I went to climb Mt. Iizuna last weekend though we didn't have nice weather. Sep 15 is Aged People's Day and also national holiday in Japan. I really wanted to go somewhere in such a day.

I was so fascinated to find many kinds of beautiful flowers this time (this is the 3rd time I climbed Iizuna this year).

I chose a route from Togakushi Chusha and this made me lucky to see many flowers. About an hour later than walking under conifer forests, you got out to the field of flowers.

I would be glad if you enjoy to see my pictures below.


Many 'Oyama rindo' along the route. This flower is The flower of Nagano-ken.

Torikabuto, beautiful purple

Yamabokuchi

Matsumushi sou

Yama odamaki

Hakusan furo

Kawara nadeshiko, also called as 'Yamato nadeshiko'

Tsurigane ninjin

The weather was so cloudy...

Summit sign and me...and a unknown man

I also found Tsuru-rindou, Tsurifune-sou, Azami, Yakushi-sou, Akino-kirin-sou, and Umebachi-sou...and a dooog!

Mt. Reisenji, 1875m

There is Mt. Reisenji nextdoor to Mt. IIzuna. Most people think it is a part of IIzuna so only little know about it.

Reisenji was a very old temple but now it moved to the other place so you find it as only historical place. I was surprised to know that it is more than 500 years old now.

More than half way to the top I walked and walked under dark woods. I couldn't see any vews there. One and half hours later I passed by 'sankaku iwa' (triangle rock) and found the signboard saying '38 minutes to the summit'. Don't you think it is something strange? Anyway I kept walking.

Then I found some flowers along the path. They are very pretty and beautiful. Very many kinds of flowers made me excited and I was happy to see them.

All the way this mountaineering I didn't meet anyone climbing it. This fact shows it is not very known for climging. Anyway I enjoyed it today, though the weather was so foggy that any views couldn't be seen.


The signboard says this temple enshrined 5 gods. They are very popular in Japanese legend.

Kurumayuri

Matsumushi-sou

Tsurigane-ninjin

Flower garden beneath the summit


Tsuru rindou

Yama-odamaki



Umebachi-sou

A butterfly, 'Ageha', on Azami

It took 2 hours to the summit today. I took a lot of pictures of flowers. If the weather permitts, you could see Mt. Myoko, Hiuchi, and Japan sea over there.

Mt. Yunomaru (in Ueda, Tohmi, Tsumagoi)

I climbed Mt. Yunomaru (2,098m) last weekend. This was the third time for me. This mountain is located at Ueda, Tohmi and Tsumagoi-mura. I joined a ham radio contest there.

I went to the foot of the mountain and stayed a night in the car so that I could start to climb very early in the morning.

Though I saw very beautiful stars in the sky around midnight there, there was dense fog around nearby mountains when I woke up at five in the morning. I had a light breakfast and then got started to climb.

On the way I passed by 'Yunomaru camping site', 'Central fork point' and 'Mushohtoh fork point'. I found the blue sky between clouds sometimes so I expected it would be better weather on the top, although it had been very windy and dense foggy while I was climbing.

At last I got to the summit and it was very strongly windy there. However, I set up a small radio antenna(skydoor antenna) at the back of a big rock and I got on the air, on 6 meter band of ham radio. I made contacts with Tochigi and Ibaraki, though a few with Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. I think they are blocked by Mt. Asama. I also made many contacts with Tohoku area, Tohkai area and Tottori.

But I enjoyed a ham radio although I only could set up a very small antenna. After I made 50 contacts, I decided to stop it and go down.

In early morning I was surronded by so tense fog that no good views could be seen. But later, around 10 AM, the fog was gone and it turned very fine. At last I could see mountains with a 360 degree field of vision. I even saw Mt. Fuji!

Next time I want to climb Mt. Eboshi as well as this Yunomaru.


Mt. Asama and the radio antenna

Hakusan furo

Matsumushi sou

Yama hotarubukuro









Mt. Fuji at the center. Can u see?