Hello, hello! Here I am at the edge of this cliff. See me?

No, I’m not signaling for you to abandon the day, to tap your ruby heels together three times and get yourself back to your living room as quickly as you can. No, definitely not. What I’m doing is signaling that I’ve found yet another reason why it makes perfect sense to .  .  .

. . . tromp an hour from the lodge (near Mt. Iodake) to Mt. Yokodake . . .

. . . picking out one safe step after another along the rocky trail, making sure you don’t sprain (or worse, break) your ankle, and then to . . .

. . . tromp another couple of hours over to and up the rather steep Mt. Akadake (the highest peak along the Yatsugadake ridge — 2897 meters).

That gives me a total of twenty-three reasons. Below, I’ll start with #5. If you haven’t already found four (or at least three), then 5 ~ 23 are not likely to be very convincing.

#5 – Yellow flowers.

# 6 – White flowers.

#7 – More white flowers.

#8 – Big shadows.

#9 – Pink flowers. (Challenge yourself to find a komakusa that an insect hasn’t bitten into. Word has it that the bugs love these guys.)

#10 – Big rocks to scramble over.

#11 – Big rocks to imagine over.

#12 – Blue flowers.

#13 – A fun road back.

#14 – Many places that will remind you of what you read the day before: Who sees all beings in his own Self, and his own Self in all beings, loses all fear. (If you’ve perused The Hearty Hikers’ Handbook, you’ll surely recall page 643, which states, “Of course, mountains are beings!”)

#15 – Many places, framed nicely, which will remind you that the contours of the various peaks only remain fixed if you never move.

#16 –  A bird’s-eye view.

#17 – Purple flowers.

#18 – Purple flowers with bees.

#19 – Frilly purple flowers.

#20 – Purple flowers and white flowers and bird’s-eye views and blue skies and mountains and more mountains and                . (Yes, there will be blanks that you get to fill in!)

#21 – The sunrise.

#22 – The Sunset.

#23 – A sign that will give you as clear a direction for your life as you will ever receive. The choice is entirely yours.