Plans, plans…

January 8, 2008 | Filed Under Hiking, Japan 

Dark clouds cruised the high places, dropping the first snows of winter, clearing briefly to reveal snow capped peaks and keeping us to the foothills of Kyoto and Nara over the year end.

We traced the millenia-old footsteps of En-no-Gyoja, Kukai and Saigyo through Yoshino near Nara. The armour of Minamoto-no-Yoshitsune still sits at Yoshimi shrine alongside the weapons of his retainer, the warrior-monk Benkei. It’s been there for almost a thousand years.

The long weekend is approaching. So here’s the plan. Jump on the shinkansen on Friday evening. Hire a 4WD at Osaka, and drive up to Odaigahara. Spent Saturday hiking through the snow in Odaigahara’s primeval forests, then head west to Mount Omine. Climb up on Sunday, back down on Monday. Gonna need some snowshoes..

Comments

5 Responses to “Plans, plans…”

  1. Shari on January 13th, 2008 8:03 am

    I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Your pictures are incredibly beautiful. It seems a waste of talent for you not to be a professional photographer.

  2. cjw on January 15th, 2008 1:28 pm

    Thank you @Shari, that’s a really nice thing to say and I am very flattered. Maybe one day…

  3. Nigel on May 3rd, 2008 12:29 pm

    That second photo is great Chris … makes me want to get on a train out of Tokyo right now.
    BTW, I think we might be working in the same industry. Although I am on the other side of the fence, the sell-side.

  4. cjw on May 6th, 2008 12:42 pm

    I know what you mean Nigel. Especially over the last quarter… That photo was taken on a great walk along the valley below Jingo-ji in north-west Kyoto. We ended up there quite by accident having hopped the wrong bus.

    If you’re on bloomberg then you can drop me a MSG if you want to discuss machiya details.

  5. Nigel on May 6th, 2008 12:53 pm

    Cheers Chris. Email is probably better … [redacted]
    Nice to see you had a big GW break as well. Mine was less constructive, with various things on for work, a cold to deal with. Got the girlfriend and myself out of Tokyo today for the best weather of the 4-day weekend so all was not lost.

    Take it easy

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