Bandai-san

Konichiwa,

due to some trouble concerning my right to vote in the upcoming national election I made a spontaneous trip to the German Embassy in Tokyo. In case you are interested, this is how it looks like:

Very welcoming.

Unfortunately, they couldn't help me. I am very angry towards myself and German bureaucracy that I most likely won't be able to participate in the election. What kind of Democracy denies one of its citizens the right to vote ten days before the election even takes place. Apparently this one.

But I have much more pleasant stories to tell. The last two days I had the privilege to accompany Isoji and his daughter Yuu northward to Bandai, a volcano that blew off his summit together with its northern flank. Remarkable about this eruption in 1888 is that there was no magma involved, just steam. And the problem with these eruptions is that there are no precursors, they just happen without warning. The villages north of the volcano were immediately buried by the massive landslide. Today, the area north of the mountain is littered with lakes and ponds, filled with water from the rivers that were disrupted by the huge displacement of land. It creates an immensely beautiful landscape. Too bad that, on our first day, a taifun was approaching. The weather could have been better but who the hell is surprised by this anymore. It would certainly be more surprising by now to hear me report nice weather. So yeah, it was raining, and it was foggy, and it was very windy, but it was also a heck of a lot of fun.

Yuu and me.

The trail was very nice, only overshadowed a bit by the rain and wind.

Watch out for low hanging branches, Isoji...

We climbed up to the top of the cliff, which now stands in the place of the former summit of the volcano. And this is the magnificent view from the top:

We could at least see parts of the cliff.

Well, it's something.

As a reminder, that the vocano is still active, you'll have the constant smell of sulfur in your nose, originating mostly from this abandoned hot spring.

This one has certainly seen better (and drier) days.

Smelly water reaches the surface all over the area, and it is waaaarrrmmm... and it bubbles.

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles.

As you might have thought, we didn't spend much time at the top and after our descend we proceeded to the volcano museum. Probably the most remarkle thing on display, in my opinion, was an ancient chinese seismometer, built in 132 AD! Simply astounding.

Looks weird but it works.

We spent the night at the home of Isoji's friend, TT. We had a delicious meal and thankfully he hadn't drunk all the beer yet. He also offered us probably the best sake I ever had until now. I might have drunk a bit too much. Thanks to TT and his family for their hospitality! I very much enjoyed the stay.

Kanpai!

The next day we went to see the landscape that the debris avalanche has left behind. To be more precise: lakes! Lots of ponds, small and large lakes. Check this out:

Speechless.

Pathway along the shore.

FISHIES.

The red pond. I shit you not. That's what it's called.

Nice stuff.

We took a hiking path along many ponds. Simply beautiful. There are however bigger lakes than this.

Yep, that's big.

There was unsurprisingly a cloud hanging ontop of Bandai-san. On the following close-up picture you can just barely see the top of the cliff.

Almost...

Our last stop was a very beautiful volcanic cone called Azuma-Kofuji, which is part of the Azuma volcanic complex. It sits on top of a plateau and therefore is not too high itself. Climbing up takes just about 10 min. Here is the view into the crater.

My first proper crater.

It was also incredibly windy.

I think we should sue our barber.

Thanks again to Isoji, Yuu and TT for this amazing weekend!

Right now I am already back in Germany and am fondly looking back to my time in Japan, all the new friends I made and all the experiences I had. I am sure this is just the beginning of my love for Japan.

Thank you all for following my adventure.

Cheerio,

Nils