The Mountain Changes
And Japan's most underrated prefecture.
Earlier this week I was in Yamagata City for a Yamagata Prefecture promotion thingy and I shared this (very short) story I thought of a while back.
I hope you like it:
The Mountain Changes
You see the mountain off in the distance floating in the sky. As you get closer and closer, the mountain takes up more and more of your field of vision. As you get closer still, the mountain gets steeper and steeper until you reach the summit. When you’re at the summit, you turn around, and see how far you’ve come. Then, you realise it wasn’t the mountain that changed.
It was you.
Some more photos from the week:
Daily Yamabushi for The Week
Daily Yamabushi posts for the week of July 4 to July 10, 2025.
Read Daily Yamabushi at timbunting.com/blog. Everything I make is free of charge if you know where to find it. I’d start here.
I <3 Yamagata. I went there last year on my first trip to Japan (initially I was mostly interested in following Basho's steps) and it was a very pleasant surprise. In the city of Yamagata I had the kindest, most generous host and strolling through the quiet rural town strangely made me think of my Basque country hometown.
Love all of this, but especially the Totoro tree.