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This is Page 1 of 2 - the best of May 2007!
posted: May 31st, 2007
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This page covers May 3rd thru May 5th. Our vacation continued through May 6th, so the first 6 days of the month were still vacation. After May 6th the photos slowed down considerably. Click on any thumbnail to begin.

Begin May 3rd
  On May 3rd we climbed a new mountain - Mt. Jinba (857 meters = 2,812 feet). The 1st shot shows a Disporum smilacinum - there were hundreds or thousands of these, but they were mostly in deep shade so photos were difficult. The 2nd shot shows a scene from the trail. The 3rd shot is a Cymbidium goeringii (orchid) - a very late one. WOW!
May3Jinba04_DisporumSmilacinumRC.jpg
May3Jinba04_Disporum
SmilacinumRC
May03_JinbaSanClimb_Scene01RC.jpg
May03_JinbaSanClimb
_Scene01RC
May03_JinbaSan_Cymbidium_goeringii02RC.jpg
May03_JinbaSan_
Cymbidium_goeringii02RC

  The first 2 shots here are Viola phalacrocarpa - we found some really beautiful ones on this hike. The 3rd shot is another scene - from the summit of the mountain.
May03_JinbaSan_Viola_phalacrocarpa01RC.jpg
May03_JinbaSan_Viola
_phalacrocarpa01RC
May03_JinbaSan_Viola_phalacrocarpa05aRC.jpg
May03_JinbaSan_Viola
_phalacrocarpa05aRC
May03_JinbaSanClimb_Scene03RC.jpg
May03_JinbaSan
Climb_Scene03RC

  The first 2 shots here are on different areas of the very broad summit of the mountain. The statue is a horse. The "jin" in Jinba means camp and the "ba" means horse, so I suppose this is "Horse Camp" mountain. The 3rd shot is a small tea plantation on the trail which we used to descend the mountain.
May3Jinba08_DanRC.jpg
May3Jinba
08_DanRC
May03_JinbaSanClimb_Summit01RC.jpg
May03_JinbaSan
Climb_Summit01RC
May03_JinbaSanDescent_TeaPlantation01RC.jpg
May03_JinbaSanDescent_
TeaPlantation01RC

  This picture is 2 very small cans of beer - you can see that they are 135 ml - that's a couple of mouthfuls and that's about it. It was about the right size considering how tired we were.
May03_JinbaSanDescent_TinyBeerCans01RC.jpg
May03_JinbaSanDescent_TinyBeerCans01RC
End May 3rd, Begin May 4th
  On May 4th we climbed yet another new mountain - Mt. Otsuka (920 meters = 3,018 feet). These 3 shots are on the way to the foot of the trail. The first one is from a bridge over the Upper Tama River. The 2nd shot is a HUGE wild Wisteria vine growing in a tree and the 3rd shot is an older store house - most or all homes used to have these store houses for the winter food. I removed the electrical wires from this shot and used PhotoShop's "Shadows and Highlights" Adjustment tool to brighten this photo up in the front.
May04_Kori_TamaRiver01RC.jpg
May04_Kori_
TamaRiver01RC
May04_Kori_Wisteria03RC.jpg
May04_Kori_
Wisteria03RC
May04_Kori_OldBldg01WireRemoved_ShadwHighltRC.jpg
May04_Kori_OldBldg01Wire
Removed_ShadwHighltRC

  The first shot here an amazingly BLUE Viola grypoceras - they are usually much more violet in color, but this one was very blue! The 2nd shot shows the summit sign and the 3rd shot shows the beautiful young leaves of spring.
May04_Kori_Viola_grypoceras_BLUE01aRC.jpg
May04_Kori_Viola_grypoceras
_BLUE01aRC
May04_Kori_MtOtsukaSummitSignRC.jpg
May04_Kori_MtOtsukaSummit
SignRC
May4KoriMitake05_GreenRC.jpg
May4KoriMitake05
_GreenRC

  Just after we crossed over the summit and started for Mt. Mitake (929 meters = 3,048 feet) we started finding a whole lot of Viola sieboldi, we found a bunch of this violet back in April but we didn't expect to find it in this environment or this late in the season, we did though - so here are 3 shots of it.
May04_Kori_MtOtsuka_Viola_sieboldi07CropRC.jpg
May04_Kori_MtOtsuka_
Viola_sieboldi07CropRC
May04_Kori_MtOtsuka_Viola_sieboldi10aCropRC.jpg
May04_Kori_MtOtsuka_Viola_
sieboldi10aCropRC
May4KoriMitake14_ViolaSieboldiRC.jpg
May4KoriMitake14_
ViolaSieboldiRC

  Here is one Viola keiskei, which we found on the way down Mt. Mitake.
May4KoriMitake17_ViolaKeiskeiRC.jpg
May4KoriMitake17_ViolaKeiskeiRC
End May 4th, Begin May 5th
  On May 5th we climbed Mt. Takao for the 32nd time (599 meters = 1,965 feet). We expected to find some new flowers - and we were not disappointed. We found these Viola maximowicziana, which we had never found before. They were growing in the darkest places - VERY difficult to get any decent shots of. I believe that you can see the very heavy leaves with dark red veins.
May05Takao_Viola_maximowicziana01RC.jpg
May05Takao_Viola_
maximowicziana01RC
May05Takao_Viola_maximowicziana09aRC.jpg
May05Takao_Viola_
maximowicziana09aRC
May5Takao18_ViolaMaximowiczianaRC.jpg
May5Takao18_Viola
MaximowiczianaRC

  Here is a final shot of Viola maximowicziana. We hiked down the opposite side of the mountain and it had been 2 or 3 weeks since we had last been there. We saw 2 old ladies up on the side of this steep slope above the old dirt road and wondered what they had found! After they left, we went up and found out - it was a Paeonia japonica!! A wild Peony in the deep Cedar Forest! We were absolutely amazed to find this. We had found only 2 or 3 of this plant before - and never seen it in bloom! So, here are 2 shots - 1 of the flower and 1 with Kazuya so that you can get an idea of the scale here.
May5Takao19_ViolaMaximowiczianaRC.jpg
May5Takao19_Viola
MaximowiczianaRC
May05Hikage_Paeonia_japonica08RC.jpg
May05Hikage_Paeonia
_japonica08RC
May05Hikage_Paeonia_japonica_Kazuya12RC.jpg
May05Hikage_
Paeonia_japonica_Kazuya12RC

  Here are 2 more shots of the Paeonia japonica plant. The 3rd shot is a Meehania urticifolia.
May05Hikage_Paeonia_japonica13RC.jpg
May05Hikage_Paeonia
_japonica13RC
May5Hikage09_PaeoniaJaponicaRC.jpg
May5Hikage09_
PaeoniaJaponicaRC
May05Hikage_Meehania_urticifolia03RC.jpg
May05Hikage_Meehania
_urticifolia03RC

  The first shot here is a Polygala japonica - this is such a tiny plant that it's amazing that Kazuya was able to capture this much detail! The 2nd shot here is a large Viola verecunda plant and the 3rd shot is a nice looking fern plant.
May5Takao25_PolygalaJaponicaRC.jpg
May5Takao25_
PolygalaJaponicaRC
May05Hikage_Viola_verecunda04RC.jpg
May05Hikage_Viola_
verecunda04RC
May05Hikage_Fern02RAWRC.jpg
May05Hikage_
Fern02RAWRC
End May 5th, End Page 1
And, that shows you what we saw during the final week of vacation. Thanks so much for taking the time to look. Please continue on to Page 2 for a continuation of this month's adventures. Go To Page:


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