The country side that we see speeding along by train is the same from Okayama to Tokyo.  Flat land is crammed with buildings, industrial plants, and wires.  The gray concrete is punctuated by garish signage.  The mountains could be beautiful if you squint, but in focus mammoth towers and thousands of electrical wires march over the tops.  It’s enough to make my nature conservator heart grow cold.

This is what shocked me most in 2003, was this landscape of industry.  Even the ocean isn’t immune.  There is aquaculture, barges, and ships as far as you can see.  Riverbanks, even in rural appearing areas are cemented and controlled.

But then we got off the train. We wound up a tiny road on a bus headed for Lake Ashi.  As we entered the cool shadowy forest of the Hakone National Park little vistas began to appear that seemed remarkably untouched.  The iconic Mount Fuji appeared from cloud cover near sunset. Sketching Fuji in watercolor as the light faded might be up there in my top ten moments.

Granted that we were there with other tourist and big tour boats take crowds out for better vantage points to view Fuji, it still feels good here.  Fishermen yank out an alarming number of fat trout, which I suspect must be stocked.  But instead of distant din of traffic, there is the sweet sounds of songbirds, something that sounds like a loon, and the lapping of water on shore.

At 5 AM I went out to see Fuji-san as she woke.  It was according to my thermometer 38 degrees Fahrenheit, but it felt like 20 by the lake.  Fishermen were stomping around and blowing steamy air into their hands.  Almost all of them had pretty nice cameras.  They take turns messing with their tackle, casting grubs out on the lake, and snapping photos.  I made some pictures of Fuji, pink and reflected in the lake and booked it to the store for something hot to drink.

In Japan your hot drink selection is about 50 different bottles in a heated display area.  Without knowledge of Kanji- Japanese lettering, it’s pretty much a crapshoot on what you’re going to get.  This time I got a hot milky tea exactly like my cousin Charles makes me on cold mornings at the River in Northern New York. 

Happily I went back out and hiked along a checkerboard cobblestone path around the lake.  It was so quiet, moss covered and beautiful that I was stunned.  Eventually I found the hatchery where the trout are raised and then went back to join the Williams for a gondola ride up Mt. Komagatake

Even as I was cherishing this place I realized how fast the time was going to fly before we were again on a bus winding our way down the mountains to board a train back to Tokyo.  This is the Japanese landscape I want to remember.