If you were traveling to the northern island of Hokkaido, Japan, to witness a summer blazing with flowers and colors, early June would be too early, as season travelers would tell you. ‘Green and nothing much else’ they would say. Yet, in the right places, deep in nature’s own backyard, when the man-made entreaties of summer’s glories are yet to be fulfilled, you will find some surprises, as the melting snow in higher altitudes give rise to the first blooms of hardy temperate flowers and vegetations in swampy wet meadows.

In Japan, the basis for avoiding danger in its national parks appear to be a healthy balance of risk versus personal responsibility, in engaging nature respectfully as we encounter it, without an overly protective swath of blankets.

 

As we discovered at the Daizetsuzan National Park, accessed from the Asahidake Onsen Ropeway, if we permit ourselves to linger in the quiet peace of the uncrowded park, to slow down and savor nature’s fury as furamole meets snow, , a deep sense of serenity and joy prevail, and leads one to a greater communion and gratitude with Nature and its Creator.

(Lumix GX85, GM1; 12-60 mm Lumix; 20 mm Lumix lenses, June 2018; Asahidake Onsen, Daizestsuzan National Park, Hokkkaido, Japan

© TL, thesimplereflections.com)

see also Journeying the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, At Lassen’s Peak and The Panther Meadows.