It’s a breezy Friday morning in Yokosuka, Japan, and I am standing on the deck of a cherry red Tokyo-Wan ferry.
Beside me are my mother’s brother – my infamous Uncle Mike – and his long-time friend Chiz (short for Chizuko, which means “child of a thousand storks”), a karaoke fanatic with an appetite I soon learn not to compete with.
As the wind dances around us, we wait for the boat to depart and carry us across Tokyo Bay to our destination for the day – Nokogiriyama, or the 1,081-feet-tall Mount Nokogiri in Chiba Prefecture.
“Ship’s on her way,” Uncle Mike says as we pull out of the port.
He was a captain in the U.S. Navy for over 25 years, and I can’t help wondering whether for him, the sound of the engines beginning to rumble and roil beneath us feels like coming home.
Forty minutes later, we reach Chiba and set out walking towards the mountain. Moving one hand back and forth in a sawing motion, Chiz explains that Nokogiriyama literally translates to “Saw Mountain,” so named for the way its jagged hills resemble the teeth of a Japanese saw.
For the next few hours, we hike up and down these hills, taking care over roots spread across the ground like veins and stopping to admire the 1,500 small rakan statues huddling along the path (who represent Buddha’s disciples and are each said to have a different facial expression).
But there’s one vista in particular that I linger over. Pine trees give way to an exquisite, expansive vista of the Bōsō Peninsula: crystalline bay, roughly hewn hills, and – just below us – a few cherry trees with puffs of white petals brightening their branches. The cherry blossom season is nearly finished for the year, and yet here are a few still hanging on.
“Yep, that’s a cherry [tree],” Chiz says. “It’s almost over.”
And it is this vista that will remain with me the most from Nokogiriyama – because of the view, because of the cherry blossoms, and because of the way they really won’t be there for much longer.
Not until next year, that is.
If I ever make it to Japan (hopefully next year), I want to get on this ferry and enjoy the view. It must be an amazing experience to get your sketching inspirations from seeing places around 🙂
Thank you, Agness! That’s awesome to hear you might be headed to Japan next year – I am loving it here so far 🙂 And yes, I definitely recommend the ferry to Chiba. I really enjoyed exploring it – the scenery there was a perfect contrast to cities like Tokyo and Yokohama!
Gosh, your sketches are amazing. That scene just comes alive with your drawing and the annotations. I can see I’ve got a lot of catching up to do on your blog (I didn’t realise you were in Japan) but I’ll try to do it quietly and not inundate you with comments!
I love your photos in this post and think I would have especially loved the rakan statues. I can’t believe each one has a unique facial expression!
Hey Mandy! How are you? Hope all is well in London right now 🙂 Thanks so much for your kind words about my sketches – I love working on them. And yes, I am indeed in Japan right now! My uncle has been living in Yokosuka for the last three years and I’ve finally had the chance to come over and visit him. Where are you off to next?
PS – You would have definitely loved the rakan statues – they added a fun dimension to the landscape as we hiked!
Candace I can see your skill in sketching improving over time. This cherry blossom sketch is probably the best. the way you’ve removed the other trees and only left the cherry, and how you’ve shown the blossoms. it’s remarkable.
Thanks so much for this, BabuJ – it means the world, especially coming from you! It is pretty crazy to look back over my earlier sketches and see how my style has changed and grown…but I suppose that’s how it is with any art form!
Wow what a view!!!!!!!! I’m obsessed with that photo of you walking in the woods.
Thank you, Andi!! And I’m so glad you love that photo – those roots were a lot of fun to photograph 🙂
Another beauty my friend! And I agree with Andi – that photo of the tree roots is just mesmerising. I could stare at it for hours, trying to untangle the sinewy mess. It’s like they are almost growing out of the photo 🙂
Thanks so much, my friend! Aren’t those roots incredible? I loved stumbling across them as we hiked 🙂 Loving your posts from Thailand!
Great sketches! I love the beauty of the cherry blossoms but they are so fleeting! I’m living in Korea now and the blossoms only seemed to last a week. The weekend I had planned to go exploring and taking photos of them it rained and then they were all gone. 🙁 Guess I will appreciate them all the more next year when they bloom again!
Thanks so much for your comment, Kaleena! And yes, I totally understand your disappointment at the cherry blossoms being gone – there was apparently a lot of rain here in Japan right before I arrived, which also blew them away. Hopefully we’ll both have a chance to catch more again next year 🙂 How long have you been in Korea for?