Yamagata Perfecture

Three days in Yamagata perfecture went very quickly. To my surprise, it had abundant natural beauty to offer, including endless rice paddies, curvy mountains extending over an hour of train riding distance, multiple waterfalls and the green moss-covered paths therebetween. Late cherry blossoms were still blooming to savor, surviving through rains until a day prior to my arrival. Weather was warm enough to stroll around with shorts, and sellers of street vendors were kind enough to make me constantly indulge myself into new bursting tastes of soy souce and fish stocks.

The photos on top left was taken from the hike around Yamadera, a beautifully embraced path along the stream of crystal blue water amid of deep greens of early summer. One on the middle was taken on the first day of the journey at a walkway along a seashore busy with many street oyster shops. The top right is my tired feet wearing Simpson socks cooling off from the mountain breeze after a long walk.

Along the hiking trails, millions of flowers and herbs greeted us with somehow familiar, yet still exotic appearances and frangrances. Colors of wilderness ranging from yellow, blue, purple, green, red, pinkish white, etc. were proudly illumiating under summer sun ray.

Other than mesmerizing colors of wild flowers and their almost intoxicating frangrances as well as the superb weather all through my stay in the little mountaineous town up north, several hours of driving from Tokyo, my holiday was completed by a pleasant companionship from Thang, a friend from UBC who has been working at the Yamagata perfecture's provincial governmental office for three years. In spite of constant quarrels over cute Japanese guys by blaming each other for depriving chances to attract their attentions and some excessively heated debates on numerous subjects, we agreed upon the past couple of days being still mutually beneficiary and inspiring to each other. My trip could be perfect only because of you, my friend! Oh, I also appreciate your haiku!