紅葉

[akujunkan]

Today some friends and I headed up to the Kurobe River Gorge for 紅葉, or the changing of the leaves, which is a big deal here in Japan.



Shin Yamabiko Bashi, which is more or less the entrace to the gorge. The sightseeing trolleys roll over this on their way into the mountains.



Yanagibashi. The medieval castle in the lower righthand corner is the Shin Yanagawara power station. (Although the Kurobe Gorge trolley now mostly functions as a tourist attraction it was orginally built to service the various hydroelectric stations along the Kurobe river.)



紅葉そのもの。Japanese go apeshit over this every fall. It is beautiful, though.



In which we start to see some snow.



This is pretty much what I see from my apartment windows, minus all the sugi.



Giant statue of Kanzeon Bosatsu overlooking Unazuki Machi. I love Buddhist iconography. Kanzeons always make me so happy.



Home, sweet home.



This could almost be sumi-e.



That will be all.

Comments

[perseid.livejournal.com]

Your Yanagibashi pic is jigsaw-puzzle worthy. ^^ But yeah, I can see why the Japanese enjoy the changing of leaves so much.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Thanks:) I was actually 1.5 weeks late for the leaves, thanks to my bronchitis. Imagine what those mountains looked like when every tree on them was bright scarlet.