February 2, 2019. A clear and warm winter’s day. A beautiful day for a snow hike.

From my place in Shizuoka City, about a 45 min. drive to the town of Utogi, famous for its wasabi, and another 15 min. to the Aozasa trailhead. Actually, there are two trailheads, one at Aoi Kogen, and another farther along the mountain road, one that leads directly up to the Jizo Pass.

If you drive six or seven minutes past Aoi Kogen and get to a place where it looks like a couple of cars could park . . . and red-coat Jizo is there to greet you, then you know you’re where you’re supposed to be.

From the “Red-coat Jizo” start to the Jizo Pass, it’s a 30 or 40 min. walk–this day through the snow.

We love to walk in the snow. We went to walk in the snow.

Reaching the Jizo Pass.

There’s a hut at the pass, with another Jizo inside. Someone’s left him some drinks, and a bit of change, and he looks pretty content.

A few minutes up from the Jizo Pass, along the main Aozasa Mountain ridge, is one of our favorite Fuji-san viewing spots. The photograph at the very top of this blog post is from this spot, too. 

From the Jizo Pass to the top of Mount Aozasa, it’s an hour and half or so. It might take a little longer if you stop to take a thousand pictures, or if you chase a deer into the bamboo grass and play a little hide-and-seek with him. Once he’s deep in the bamboo grass, though, it’s really, really hard to win!

And of course, you’ll need a bit of time simply to experience pure joy.
It was, you might recall, a spectacular walk along this trail, walking under this lovely blue sky, gliding (or so it seemed) through this sweet snow—a couple of years ago—that inspired our musical friends, NDuaDuo, to compose their song, “Yuki ga arukiyasui,” which, I guess, translates literally as “It’s Easy to Walk in the Snow,” but perhaps translates, in terms of meaning, more effectively as “What Joy it is to Walk in the Snow.”

Anyway, NDuaDuo was there with us on this most recent hike, too, and they went home and re-recorded “Yuki ga arukiyasui,” and asked me if they could upload it here.

But of course, I said.

If you like the song, let me know, and I’ll let NDuaDuo know.

And a bit more info. The story of how this NDuaDuo song was composed, at least the fictional story behind the composition, can be found in my new novel, When a Sissy Climbs a Mountain in May, due out in May. Hopefully, in May. It might become June. We’ll see.
The final ascent to the Aozasa summit.

Where we enjoyed watching Fuji-san trying on hats. First, this mini flying saucer hat.

Then the mini flying saucer hat expanded into a standard flying saucer hat . . . and began sending up cloud-smoke signals.  Read them if you can.

Pretty lovely view of the Pacific Ocean, too.

Next, Fuji-san tried on his Cat-in-the-Hat cowboy hat.

By the way, around here, everyone knows that Fuji-san likes to try on hats like this when he knows it’s going to rain in the evening.

It did rain.

Finally, photo below, a whipped-over-to-the-land-of Oz hat.

Remember, Oz? There was some scary stuff there, all right.

But only when Dorothy’s mind wasn’t in the right place.

The right awareness is easy. Just tap your heels together three times—or take three gliding steps through the “Yuki ga arukiyasui” Aozasa snow.