Saturday, November 14, 2009

Bondai

(PICTURE: The start of the trail.)

(PICTURE: The end of the trail.)


Once and a while I get a tad behind on posting things. This is one of those times. A few weeks ago Paula and I had a day off and decided to hike Bondai mountain. The hike was absolutely gorgeous. There is something about the forests in Japan that are like nowhere else I've ever been. Between the trees, the changing foliage and the way light trickles through the canopy, the forests appear almost mystical. I read a Murakami book last year called, "Kafka on the Shore." In the book one of the characters continually wanders through a dark forest despite warnings that he could easily lose himself in it and never make it back. If it wasn't for the well-marked path, I could see that happening quite often out here.

As with most hikes, the payoff at Bondai was at the top. The view was gorgeous.