November 4.

We drove up through Utogi, enjoying some persimmon dreams, and headed for the Aozasa trailhead. Typhoon # 19 had broken up the road a bit in a few stretches, but we proceeded slowly and had no major problems getting through. For the next couple of weeks, though, expect that there may be some construction work in progress up on the road.

One of our team members was overcoming a bit of an illness, so we planned to take it easy, and not necessarily go all the way to the top of Aozasa.

If you start from below the Jizo Pass, as we did, it usually takes about two hours to reach the top of Aozasa, but we ended up going only about halfway.

In that hour, though, we came across lots of beautiful color.

When the colors are bright and the sky is sunshiny blue, you feel you are being radiated with all the energy of the universe. You just throw your arms back and bathe in it.

So you hope for a blue sky, especially in autumn. At least we usually do.

But when the blue weakens—or vanishes, you don’t feel disappointed. At least, we don’t.

When the light becomes subdued, your eyes “reach” a little more—and the effort makes up for the diminished shine.

And you have a tendency to see small things very close to you that you probably wouldn’t have seen under an azure sky.

But we do like the blue.

And if we can’t get three primary colors, we’ll be satisfied with two.

And we’ll be grateful driving back the mountain for the opportunity to have more persimmon dreams.

To feel again, the love coming through the blue, and the warm glow of the orange.