Japan photos: Utsukushigahara, Nagano Prefecture

[japankasasagi]

Another photo post!  Please be warned, this one is long... See my note at the very end. :)

As a follow-up to my previous post about Nishizawa Gorge, the next day we went to Utsukushigahara Highlands in Nagano prefecture. Utsukushigahara literally means "the beautiful highland", and here's a satellite view of it, with Matsumoto City on the left:

Comments

[playswithworms]

OH Wow! How unbelievably gorgeous *stares at amazing pictures of amazingness*

I'm afraid I don't even have a guess on your berries - they don't look familiar at all. Very pretty coloring though! I was totally thrilled by the daddy longlegs - Japan's got daddy longlegs too! Hee hee! *glees*

Yeep - twisty sheer drop off mountain roads O_O in the dark even! I'm a flatlander, born and bred, so when I go to places like that I drive like the oldest slowest granny driver you can imagine, while the locals try to zip by or roll their eyes as they putter behind me I'm sure ^_~

Thanks for sharing all of these - enjoyed very much ^_^

[japankasasagi]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I was curious about the berries, since a fair number of the varieties here are edible. There's a tree called the linden viburnum (Viburnum dilatatum), which is natural here, although I understand it's a pest tree in the States, and the berries are sweet/sour and edible, and make a really fine cold prevention/remedy. I can send you a recipe if you can gather linden-berries. And yes, like you, I do NOT handle heights, or twisting roads high up! I insisted that hubby drive like a granny! We swore that we would not use the navigation system again in mountains...

[aleph_abyssal]

Oh - this is gorgeous! The terrain is very much like parts of New Zealand, especially the cliffs (Probably because they're on the "ring of fire" (unfortunate name, I know). The little cairns remind me of the Spirited Away story, heh ;-)

They do look like bees or wasps on the flower - did you eventally find out what they were?

[japankasasagi]

Thank you for looking! The views really are spectacular, aren't they? I know that they use New Zealand as a 'replacement' for Japan when doing movies where the setting is supposed to be Japan. I think the Last Samurai was one. That last bit through the fog really was odd, for lack of a better word. Not creepy or eerie, but it was odd. It was made stranger because those blue flowers I mentioned, all of them were covered in those insects, but the ones in the fog had the poor things frozen to the petals. I haven't asked anyone about the insects, actually. If I can remember to, I'll ask and get back to you on that. BTW, you're heading to NZ soon, aren't you? ;D