Footsteps of Spring

I traveled to the mountainous Shinshu region on 20th of April 2012 looking for late spring.

A long time ago, I visited Hakuba and Kurumayama Highland for skiing. This time I traded my skis for a camera. I was looking forward to enjoying a belated mountain spring, but it turned out I came too early! I planned to photograph fully-blooming cherry blossoms and magnolias along the river stretching from Oide Park with three mountains of Hakuba in the background, but no flowers were blooming! It's not easy to have good timing! Still, I wasn't crushed by my bad luck. I returned to Lake Shirakaba in Tadeshina, and strolled along the water. And guess what? The Asian and Eastern skunk-cabbages were blooming there! Surely, I heard the footsteps of late spring coming to visit the deep mountains.

The Late Spring of Mountainous Shinshu 1. World Above the Clouds 2. Footsteps of Spring 3. Flowers of the Snow Melt 4. Spring Breeze of Azumino