Nagano’s mountains (off Tokyo): Sept. 27, 2014

I visited Sakaki and Miyota in the eastern part of Nagano Prefecture. Both are small towns.

Nagano is mountainous. Cities and towns locate in the basins and valleys. We see mountains almost everywhere in the prefecture.

They grow various vegetables and fruits as well as rice there.

It was the harvest season.

Farmers were in the process of harvesting rice. Parts of the fields were covered with golden rice grass while other pars were already cut.

They were drying the the products.

I also saw apple trees in many places. The picture was taken in the garden of a Japanese noodle restaurant.

They have many hot springs in Nagano Prefecture. Sakaki town has a public bath and I visited there.

There were open-air bathes (several bath tubs) and I could see beautiful landscape of mountains from the place. It might be a paradise.

Miyota town locates at the foot of Mt. Asama. The mountain is an active volcano and it is banned to climb up to the top. (the top picture)

Mt. Ontake, which locates in the western part of Nagano (about 120 km from Miyota) erupted on Sept. 27, the very day I visited Nagano, and more than 30 climbers were killed in the accident. I watched the news in the TV and I was so sorry.