Japanese Pyramids

Winter is a wonderful time to climb mountains. Some might argue this point, but it seems as good of a start as any. After spending the weekend ascending two different mountains, I decided that climbing things is something that I need to do more often. The trip was the brain child of Satomi, the wonder person who allows me to be paid for something I just enjoy doing period. She often does trips to various places, and invites other employees and customers of Sweeties (the English Conversation cafe that I work at, and she owns) to come along. The idea was to go see 雲海. Unkai. An ocean of clouds.

To accomplish this amazing feet, several things are required. First... is a mountain. Second.... is cold weather. Third ... no wind. Fourth .... no clouds, as the 'ocean' is actually composed of the mist from the surrounding valleys. It helps to have a sunrise too.

So we made our way to the mountain, eluding many a police officer in our rushed attempt to make reach our destination before the 7 am sunrise.

So we reached the mountain and sprinted to the top, just in time to feel the harsh breeze as it blew the numerous clouds across the sky. We had the cold, we had the mountain .... just it so happened we didn't really have an 雲海。　That's how these things go I suppose.


Afterword it was decided that another mountain should be climbed, this one would be the Japanese pyramid. Supposedly the oldest pyramid in the world ... according to some random person about 80-years ago. It was wonderful how whenever anybody would talk about the pyramid, they would have to add that all these were "facts" that this person had said were so long-long ago.

So we arrived at the mountain and found an arrow pointing up the hill. This was supposed to be a path, but the thing with paths is usually you can walk on them. You can also usually see them. Turned out that this was a special path that only occasionally followed those rules, so we started crawling up the mountain, grabbing at tree roots to keep us from slipping back down the way we came.

Eventually we made our way up to the top, and discovered we had been climbing the pyramid the whole time. Apparently the pyramid happens to just look like a mountain. ... also likely is just a mountain. This is the site we came upon in all its glory when we realized the fact.


Needless to say, the view rocked.