In the Pines

Yesterday Aki and I visited Shintaki (新滝) waterfall with a friend.　　Last winter the waterfall froze for only a brief period and we didn't have a chance to see. I'm very glad we've taken the time to see it this winter. Recently, Otaki has spent more time on the negative side of the thermometer than it has on the positive side, so the ice on Shintaki has continued to grow and grow. The color of the ice are difficult to capture through the lens (at least for someone as unskilled in the art of photography as I). However, the phantasmal shapes that stand up from the ground and hang down from cliffs overhead are alluring to say the least. Rippled flows of ice spread out in deep shades of blue. One can walk, with caution, over the still movements of the water. A couple of weeks ago I saw a car with out of town plates parked above Shintaki for about a week. I'm guessing this was a religious practitioner, probably staying a small wooden hut that flanks the waterfall. I...

For details about Shizen - ko and kayak tours please call or visit the website of Ontake Adventure (おんたけアドベンチャー). 0264-48-1208 Some landscapes lend themselves to the aloof gazing of observers. For example, California's Yosemite Valley with its enormous walls of granite, or Japan's Kamikochi , which offers sweeping views of some of the Hida Range's finest alpine cirques, come to mind. Otaki's Shizen - ko 自然湖, meaning "natural lake", is not such a landscape. Rather, its beauty and grandeur come only from patient exploration and observation. The lake invites intimacy and refuses to welcome those who are unwilling to engage it, both physically and mentally. There is no overlook; no viewing from afar. In fact, much of Shizen - ko is hidden behind bends of trees or within vertical canyon walls. The landscape is, therefore, defiant of the insouciant looks of passers-by. In order to gain any sense of it, one must enter the lake and sit directly up...

I've been busy of late with preparations for the American Anthropological Association meeting in San Francisco next month, and a series of discussions about "resilience" here in the village this month. However, a visit by friends from Miyako-jima in Okinawa gave me a good excuse to get out and enjoy fall in Otaki. Days here in Otaki are warm--hot, when the sun is hitting directly--but the mornings and evenings are accompanied by a stern cold that nips at one's bare parts. Our Okinawa friends brought with them blue skies; heavy morning rain clouds cleared as we drove from Kiso-Fukushima station to Takigoshi, Otaki's smallest and most isolated hamlet. We started with a walk in the forest where we stopped to gather kuri (chestnuts). At midori-no-buchi we took time to warm ourselves in the sun and to marvel at the strokes of red and orange painted on the trees above us. I-san, who runs the soba restaurant in Takigoshi, is in the middle of harvesting soba for the fi...

Last month I participated in a learning activity that consisted of a walking tour of several points of interest on Ontake-san. These learning activities are put on by the village office as a way of promoting greater knowledge among residents of Otaki and its surrounding environment. There was a lot of information during the day, so I'll try to convey what I can here. The day began at the Otaki community center where we board ed a bus and headed up the mountain to Ta-no-hara 田の原. Sitting at 2108 meters, Ta-no-hara is the highest point accessible by car. Sitting just below the summit of Ontake is the Ta-no-hara Natural Park 田の原天然公園. The park consists of a series of wooden walkways that lead through a marshy forest of tall erman's birch ( dakekanba 岳樺 in Japanese), Japanese Rowan (an rose variety, nanakamado 七竈), and several varieties of stunted pines, such as shirabiso 白檜曽( Alvies veitchii Lindley), kometsuga 米栂 ( Tsuga diversifolia , a hemlock variety native to Japan), ...

I have, as of yet, to write in any length about Ontake-san (御嶽山), the volcanic mountain upon whose southwestern slope Otaki sits. Ontake-san is an integral part of Otaki's geographical, historical, ecological--and probably any other "-ical" one can think of--landscape. There's a lot to say about the mountain and so I've labeled this entry as "Pt. 1"; I don't pretend, however, to have any depth of knowledge about Ontake-san (in fact I know very little), but I do hope to learn more, and as I do I plan to add more entries. Anyway, here goes Pt. 1. Standing at 3,067 meters Ontake-san is Japan's 14th tallest mountain, and it's second tallest volcano, second only to Fuji-san. Ontake-san has been revered for hundreds of years as a reihou 霊峰--a holy mountain--and may have once rivaled Fuji-san in this respect. Every year hundreds of pilgrims come, dressed in white, to pay homage to the mountain, pray, and undertake various spiritual practices....