Mt. Iwaki
I noticed that a lot of Japanese fans have been visiting this blog, so I just wanted to let you know that my background and profile pic are photos of Mt. Iwaki in Japan.
For those who don't know Iwaki-san, it's near Hirosaki, in the Tohoku region. I went there for an autumn festival, and fell in love.
Iwaki-san is a dormant volcano. It's been dormant so long that a crater looks like this now:
The day I went to the top it was very foggy:
My friend and I had planned to walk down from the mountain top. After riding a bus up the switchback in my background, taking a ski-lift without a safety bar, and then climbing up, up, up a rough path, including some huge boulders, to the very top, we began the walk down. By the time we had reached the lake in the crater, my friend said, sorry it's too foggy, and it's very dangerous -- we'll have to go back. And of course, to get down, first we had to climb back up!
That's OK, it was the festival we came for anyway. Here's the view from the base of the mountain on festival day:
Here's a similar view when there's no festival going on:
At the top of that long flight of steps framed by the torii gates is a Shinto shrine. This picture was taken from the level of the shrine entrance. Beyond the shrine is the real beginning of the climb to the top of Iwaki-san.
The shrine was newly painted for the festival, and looked beautiful:
Many people spent the night on the mountain to greet the sunrise on festival day. Here are a few on their way down in the morning.
This little girl is so cute!
Here's a case where a picture is not worth a thousand words. This was a once-in-a-lifetime sight. The man in the middle of the circle did an amazing shamanic deer dance. I had never seen anything like it, and probably never will again. The photo doesn't begin to do it justice.
One last photo. This is a beautiful view of Iwaki-san with some ugly ducklings (LOL) on a lake below.
I just had to add a link to this blog I found giving an account of a full climb up and down the mountain. The blog includes some really nice photos!
Greg's Japan: Summiting Mount Iwaki and Descending a Small Intestine.
At the end there's a link to more photos: Greg's Iwaki photos
I'm going to steal one. Click here to see the full-size version:
The photo of swans on the lake, the photo of the steps to the shrine when there's no festival, and the switchback photo are scans of post cards. Thanks to the photographers and the post card makers for their use. Thanks to Greg for his gorgeous panorama. Rights belong to the owners.
Technorati tags: Japan Iwaki-san
For those who don't know Iwaki-san, it's near Hirosaki, in the Tohoku region. I went there for an autumn festival, and fell in love.
Iwaki-san is a dormant volcano. It's been dormant so long that a crater looks like this now:
The day I went to the top it was very foggy:
My friend and I had planned to walk down from the mountain top. After riding a bus up the switchback in my background, taking a ski-lift without a safety bar, and then climbing up, up, up a rough path, including some huge boulders, to the very top, we began the walk down. By the time we had reached the lake in the crater, my friend said, sorry it's too foggy, and it's very dangerous -- we'll have to go back. And of course, to get down, first we had to climb back up!
That's OK, it was the festival we came for anyway. Here's the view from the base of the mountain on festival day:
Here's a similar view when there's no festival going on:
At the top of that long flight of steps framed by the torii gates is a Shinto shrine. This picture was taken from the level of the shrine entrance. Beyond the shrine is the real beginning of the climb to the top of Iwaki-san.
The shrine was newly painted for the festival, and looked beautiful:
Many people spent the night on the mountain to greet the sunrise on festival day. Here are a few on their way down in the morning.
This little girl is so cute!
Here's a case where a picture is not worth a thousand words. This was a once-in-a-lifetime sight. The man in the middle of the circle did an amazing shamanic deer dance. I had never seen anything like it, and probably never will again. The photo doesn't begin to do it justice.
One last photo. This is a beautiful view of Iwaki-san with some ugly ducklings (LOL) on a lake below.
I just had to add a link to this blog I found giving an account of a full climb up and down the mountain. The blog includes some really nice photos!
Greg's Japan: Summiting Mount Iwaki and Descending a Small Intestine.
At the end there's a link to more photos: Greg's Iwaki photos
I'm going to steal one. Click here to see the full-size version:
The photo of swans on the lake, the photo of the steps to the shrine when there's no festival, and the switchback photo are scans of post cards. Thanks to the photographers and the post card makers for their use. Thanks to Greg for his gorgeous panorama. Rights belong to the owners.
Technorati tags: Japan Iwaki-san
posted by Idle-wandering | 6/28/2006 11:09:00 AM
3 Comments:
Your pictures and those of the postcards are breathtaking. Thank you for sharing your part of the world with others.
Wow, those photos are amazing! I think the first one's my favorite. Just incredible. Thanks for sharing them!
Your pictures are beautiful! What must it be like for an ugly duckling to live in view of such a thing? It probably makes them completely forget about how ugly they are...
Thanks for sharing.
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