![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_alps_blue_icy_limbs_600.jpg\")
Mid-December.<\/p>\nMid-December.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_jizo_450.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The Aozasa trailhead. As always Red-Coat Jizo was there to welcome me to the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_jizo_2_600.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I could stand there and smile at him forever. His spirit imbues the whole mountain. A bit of snow on his cap this day.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_shimojumaesan_frosty_trees_2_600.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
<\/p>\n
There’d been a good bit of rain a couple of days before, and then the sun was supposed to be out, so I headed to Aozasa thinking that the views of Fuji, with a heavy snow cap, would be magnificent.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_shimojumaesan_frosty_trees_600.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
<\/p>\n
I wasn’t expecting at all what I saw: the trees atop Shimojumaisan, just across from the trail up to the Jizo Pass, all iced up and frosty.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_light_snow_trail_450.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
There’d been a little snow . . . but very little.\u00a0 ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_aozasa_trail_view_2_600.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The blues were lovely, as I’d expected . . . except where Fuji-kun was situated. All about him were thick grey clouds.
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_icy_limbs_1_600.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
So a day intended for Fuji-watching, turned into a day to be fascinated by the beauty of the ice on the limbs beneath a blue-blue sky.
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_icy_limbs_3_450.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Really, really beautiful.
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_icy_limbs_4_600.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I’d asked a number of different folks to come along, but everyone was busy, so I was all by my lonesome.<\/p>\n
Though far from lonely. Solitude, Mr. Thoreau called it.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_icy_limbs_blue_aozasa_600.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I know it was a good day for fanciful thought because twice after removing my glove to take a picture, I dropped it and left it behind and didn’t realize I didn’t have it until I’d gone along for ten or fifteen minutes. Each time. Just the chance for a little more exercise!<\/p>\n
No, of course I’m not absent-minded, just a deep-diving daydreamer. Especially under blue like this.
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_aozasa_summit_fuji_behind_clouds_600.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
When I reached the top of Aozasa, Fuji-kun was still hiding in the grey.
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_aozasa_summit_fuji_2_600.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
And then he wasn’t. How nice it was to see him!<\/p>\n
Will be back to Aozasa soon. Will likely be some\u00a0yuki ga arukiyasui<\/em> snow by then. Mid-December. The Aozasa trailhead. As always Red-Coat Jizo was there to welcome me to the neighborhood. I could stand there and smile at him forever. His spirit imbues the whole mountain. A bit of snow on his cap this day. There’d been a good bit of rain a couple of days before, and then the … Continue reading Icy Aozasa<\/span>
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/persimmon-dreams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/181215_shimojumaesan_frosty_trees_4_600.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"