Pt 1 Autumn Colours (Kouyou) at Jozankei (Sapporo)

15th October, 2003 - After having rested up sufficiently post-pre-post-wedding party... we decided to go for a day trip to Jozankei...about 28km west, up in the mountains to see Kouyou (Autumn Colours). To be honest, I hadn't really had much expectation from the trip. I mean... we have autumn here in Australia to, you know. Little did I realise what I was in for. Of course in Australia, most of our wilderness is evergreen Eucalyptus trees. Big difference.

On the way to Jozankei, we stopped Moanan Kouen... about halfway there. I'll let the pictures do the talking for the rest of this post.

As we left Monan Kouen we headed further up into the mountains. Jozankei is the Onsen (hot springs) place of choice for Sapporo people (and more widely across Japan). Even though it feels like a long way out of town, it's still considered part of the city of Sapporo. But as we drove further and further, my mouth started opening wider and wider at the cacophony of colours that were starting to appear before my eyes.

And then we arrived at Jozankei area proper...

Our last part of the journey we'd have to make on foot. The tunnel that takes us from this world to the next?...

It's a long, long tunnel when you walk it... thoughts turn to the fact that Japan is a very geologically active island chain... and earthquakes are not an uncommon thing... hmmm...