Morning Mountain Mist

   I thought about titling this post "Misty Mountain Hop," but there was no hopping involved.

   On Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, I walk to school. The school is so close that I'd barely save any time at all by riding a bike and the brisk walk is probably better exercise, too. Another thing that makes me prefer walking is the road; it's steep and covered in loose gravel, with very small shoulders, which would make me incredibly nervous on a bike with cars flying by.

   If I go by foot, though, I'm only very nervous.

   I'm finding that as much as I hate walking, it helps wake me up in the morning just as well as a bike ride; I suspect I'll start hating it more once it gets hotter up here, though. Bike rides in hot weather are sweaty, but at least I'm going fast enough to get a nice breeze, right?

   Well, walking in hot weather just means I get sweaty without the nice breeze. So I hate walking. And running too, for that matter. It doesn't help that my shins start killing me after a few dozen feet, either...

   I suppose I shouldn't really start complaining about walking in hot weather before it actually gets hot up here. For all that it's the middle of April, it's not actually that hot up here; we had seasonably warm day earlier this week, which actually got much colder in the afternoon, but other than that, the weather feels more like late Februrary or early March.

   Since Gunma's nearly on the same latitude as Pennsylvania, that's the kind of climate I'm referring to, by the way... with a generous helping of humidity in the summer.

   Going back to the original topic, though, one of the things I find that walking lets me do is appreciate the scenery. I'm moving slowly enough that I don't have to worry about obstacles or treacherous roads, so I can look around all I want.

   It's also easier to just stop and pull out my cell phone to take a picture, too... and I generally don't have to worry about traffic, since nothing's sticking out into the road.

   So this morning, when I saw some awesome clouds or mist rising up off of the mountain, I stopped to take a picture.

   I love the mountains here.