Mountainous Japan

In the weekends I feel immense relief that I have managed to escape the urban jungle and I live 50kms from Tokyo! The teachers I work with consider where I live and work 'the country' to which I thought was funny and sort of sad that they hadn't experienced country as we know it.
By now on my hikes I see that the efficient transport can whisk anyone out and there are plenty of trekkers about which is just as well as I need them to show me the way with Japanese script on the signs or in this photo the directions have faded off altogether.



76% of Japan is mountainous. That means of course that ¾ of the population live in the urban areas. (that is 127 mill pop) Every little space being used up by buildings or veggie plots: land is apparently as expensive as the house is to build.

Fuji san is a feature of all of my walks as so far I am confined to the Tokyo region with only weekend getaways. A perfect volcanic shape, the symbol of Japan you can see from very near where I live but only on a clear day, the rest of the time it is in haze or clouds.

Out trekking and even where I live it is very rare to see tourists. Tokyo is different of course. On the mountains people are a bit suprised to see me and like to practise their English on me which is great because by then I am ready to have a chat, being all alone as I am.