This weekend held some beautiful hiking in Yamanashi prefecture at a place called Shosenkyo 昇仙峡. It's a heavily forested valley with vertical stone walls, kind of like a small Yosemite valley. Along with the pervasive cedar, cypress, and bamboo trees, the forest holds many maples and other broadleaf trees which were on fire with autumn colors.
We hiked to the rim of this miniature Yosemite, and climbed the back face of a rock that is shaped just like Half Dome (though again in miniature). Also like Half Dome, cables are set in place to assist with the climb. The view of Mt. Fuji from the top was beautiful on that clear Autumn day.
Descending back to the shopping/souvenier arcade at the valley's entrance, I met a very cute pet Godzilla at an ice cream and sweets shop.
The drive back to Tokyo was long. The folks I went with, from the outdoor club, chose to drive for the trip instead of riding the rails because recently the tolls for Japanese freeways have been reduced to be exceedingly cheap. This is an effort by the new government (the Democratic party) to stimulate the economy by encouraging people to travel. Since roads are public but railways are private, the government has control over freeway tolls, but not rail fares. Therefore rail fares remain at their market level, but tolls are much cheaper than that, which is causing people to drive for holidays instead of riding trains, and this is resulting in an abundance of traffic jams (like we experienced last night), accidents, and air pollution. My friends from the outdoor club, though enjoying the opportunity to travel for less money, also realize the trouble with this method of economic stimulus, as they are conscientious about air pollution and global warming, and not so accustomed to sitting in traffic jams for long stretches.
We hiked to the rim of this miniature Yosemite, and climbed the back face of a rock that is shaped just like Half Dome (though again in miniature). Also like Half Dome, cables are set in place to assist with the climb. The view of Mt. Fuji from the top was beautiful on that clear Autumn day.
Descending back to the shopping/souvenier arcade at the valley's entrance, I met a very cute pet Godzilla at an ice cream and sweets shop. 
The drive back to Tokyo was long. The folks I went with, from the outdoor club, chose to drive for the trip instead of riding the rails because recently the tolls for Japanese freeways have been reduced to be exceedingly cheap. This is an effort by the new government (the Democratic party) to stimulate the economy by encouraging people to travel. Since roads are public but railways are private, the government has control over freeway tolls, but not rail fares. Therefore rail fares remain at their market level, but tolls are much cheaper than that, which is causing people to drive for holidays instead of riding trains, and this is resulting in an abundance of traffic jams (like we experienced last night), accidents, and air pollution. My friends from the outdoor club, though enjoying the opportunity to travel for less money, also realize the trouble with this method of economic stimulus, as they are conscientious about air pollution and global warming, and not so accustomed to sitting in traffic jams for long stretches.
No comments:
Post a Comment