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the tops of high cliffs overhanging the sea and over the Misaki-togé or Pass of the Three Promontories. Owing to the hills all round, the view of Chôkaisan, one of the highest mountains of Japan, is constantly changing, and although the mountain is clearly seen from a long distance back, yet it is only when drawing near Sakata that one obtains a good view of it, and of the chains of low hills stretching away from if, so as to form an accurate idea of these. The whole presents a curious sight.
The volcano Chôkaisan, which the natives of the place are fond of likening to Fujiyama, stands out boldly against the sky, rising up to a height of 8,000 feet and towering far above the low hills which surround it. Seen as we saw it, it forms as it were the centre of a circle of which only half is visible, or of a spider’s web, and from this centre three ridges, like the radii of a circle or the principal threads of a web, run westwards down to the sea and are continued out into it in three promontories, forming two bays, and thus giving the name of Misaki Togé to the Pass, whilst a fourth chain of hills extends in a south-easterly direction ending shortly above Sakata. Pilgrimages are made up Chôkaisan the mountain being ascended from Fukuura, a small village about 11 miles from Sakata.
The road all the way from Hirazawa is so pretty and the scenery so varied that the journey seems shorter than it really is, and thus when we reached the valley in which Sakata lies, and, entering it from the North close to the foot of Chokaisan rode through the whole length of it up to Sakata, we were not too fatigued to be able to enjoy the rich landscape spread out before us.
The valleys in Japan may appear to some monotonous and uninteresting. They may say that they are all so alike that the eye becomes wearied by constantly dwelling on the same views. But it is not so with a real admirer of Japanese scenery. True it is that these valleys possess in a great measure a certain similarity, and that apparently, to some, the same scene is often repeated. But these valleys are peculiar to the country, it is in them
