I miss footpaths. There are a couple in Kamiyama but mainly it is just these concrete fire roads that lead to nowhere. It makes it difficult to plan a nice circular walking route so to get around this I have been making my own routes.  It is quite easy, actually.  You just pick a point on the map (or not) and make your way towards this point.  If you see anything interesting on the way or feel like taking the scenic route you just follow your nose.  I’ve found a lot of beautiful and interesting places using this M.O.  I’ll try and document these excursions from now on, if you are interested…  It begins with this sanpo, up along Route 193…

Along with this urge to explore I have been feeling a little wistful; it is that time of year. In winter life slows down, everything feels calmer and I think there is time for a little contemplation. In Japan, the winter climate is typically cold with blue skies and dazzling sun.  (It is also important to note that there are no real insects left: poison centipedes running up your orifice? Not a problem in winter. Vespa mandarinnia japonica acupuncture issues? Again, no problem. It just makes exploring less worrying (but I still like to tuck my socks into my underpants for luck. Old habits die hard.))

The beauty of living deep in the countryside is the space, masses of it. In contrast to the villages, the surrounding forests are like negative space, vast and inhospitable, timeless, esoteric, and almost impenetrable (hyperbole?). For me, I think the Japanese word ma (間) best describes their characteristics. It is a sort of palpable sense of space, a form, time, bookended by something. It is as if everything stands still, hesitating, waiting, maybe a kind of imperceptible movement? It’s nice and quiet and calming, it fits my wistful mood.  When I explore I like to wonder if anyone else has been here before me and if so, what sort of person (a samurai? A nut? Maybe a hermit?) and what were they doing there? However, any sort of romanticism is shattered when I uncover, for instance, a plastic marker peg in the ground, a rubber pipe carrying spring water, a cotton work-glove, maybe a rusted can of Calpis. It happens a lot.

I took the car along Route 193, not too sure where I was headed.  Took some little back roads, searching for something, anything.  Found this lovely little hamlet in a valley.  The sun was shining, patchy snow lying around.  Is there a waterfall up this road?  Ice on the road.  Some guy in a K-Truck with twigs.  Rocks on the road.  I see some icicles, lots of icicles.  Stop the car.

I see some strange fence atop a huge cliff with pine trees.  I see an old wooden sign pointing off into the forest.  No obvious path but it must have been something…mustn’t it?  I make my way through the trees and undergrowth along a stone wall.  I see this tree growing on its own, it is a powerful moment and it must mean something:

I continue along the stone wall and there is a hint of a path.  Eventually I arrive here:

It is an old viewpoint.  I climb up to the left of the sign and there are pine needles everywhere and big bushes and then there is this great view:

I decide to climb a little higher up the hill because I can see sunlight through the trees on top of the ridge.  Something is driving me.  I stagger sweating onto a gravel track and follow it around to a huge slab of rock and pine trees.  I sit for a good while, eating a biscuit, contemplating taking a wee.  The view is even better:

Afterwards, I make my way back down the gravel track towards (I hope) the main road.  I see more icicles.  It feels a little spooky.  I decide to run.  I’m running down this track and I can almost hear someone running behind me and I slip on the ice and do the splits but carry on running.  I can hear the sound of running water, no roaring water ahead.  It is a river.  I clear it in one stride (it’s only 2 foot wide).  I am almost at the main road now, suddenly I see something dark in the corner of my eye.  My heart does a little somersault.  Was that a cave?  Nope it was an old mine.

It is perhaps not so clear from the pictures above but these were definitely some sort of ancient mine or quarry.  I ferreted around a bit picking pebbles.  No gold unfortunately.  I wonder how old these are?

END