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.
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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_Disporum SmilacinumRC |
May03_JinbaSanClimb _Scene01RC |
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 |
May03_JinbaSan_Viola _phalacrocarpa05aRC |
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. |
May3Jinba 08_DanRC |
May03_JinbaSan Climb_Summit01RC |
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 |
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 |
May04_Kori_ Wisteria03RC |
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 |
May04_Kori_MtOtsukaSummit SignRC |
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 |
May04_Kori_MtOtsuka_Viola_ sieboldi10aCropRC |
May4KoriMitake14_ ViolaSieboldiRC |
  Here is one Viola keiskei, which we found on the way down Mt. Mitake. |
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 |
May05Takao_Viola_ maximowicziana09aRC |
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_Viola MaximowiczianaRC |
May05Hikage_Paeonia _japonica08RC |
May05Hikage_ Paeonia_japonica_Kazuya12RC |
  Here are 2 more shots of the Paeonia japonica plant. The 3rd shot is a Meehania urticifolia. |
May05Hikage_Paeonia _japonica13RC |
May5Hikage09_ PaeoniaJaponicaRC |
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 |
May05Hikage_Viola_ verecunda04RC |
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. |
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