A Glorious Sunrise Under a Sea of Clouds

 

Unkai is a Japanese word describing a late Autumn, early Winter weather phenomenon whereby valleys fill with clouds. From high points it looks like a sea of clouds.

Of course, in the valleys it looks like mist. And so it was as I began day 22 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

As the dawn approaches, the mist burns away in places....

And then I was treated to fifteen minutes of a glorious sunrise,.... the kind that makes getting up in the dark worthwhile.

So that is all there is to this post,... a sunrise experienced in the remote valleys and mountains of central Yamaguchi.

The previous post was on the previous evenings walk....

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Beneath a Sea of Clouds with the Rice Paddy Gods

Unkai is a Japanese word that refers to a "Sea of Clouds". When the conditions are right, usually late Autumn/early Winter, Valleys fill up with mist during the night. When viewed from mountaintops above the level of the mist it appears to be like a sea. many Japanese seem shocked that such things occur in many parts of the world.

On the 38th day of my walk along the Kyushu Pilgrimage, I set off from Sogi Falls in the deep mist that filled the Sendai River valley. Once the sun rises the mist gradually thins and disperses.

As I headed upriver I passed a couple of small roadside shrines with statues of Tanokami, the god of rice paddies. Yesterday I passed a bunch of them but they were all fairly weathered, but today they had been painted.

I had been heading west, and by late morning the mist had disappeared. The river now veered sharply south and then later turned back north so it was easier to keep heading west  by cutting across the range of hills and dropping down back to the river near Ebino.