"Konnichiwa, Fuji Son"

see all photos »

"Japan has one of the most sophisticated and convenient high-speed railways in the world – or so we’ve heard. Due to economics, we traveled the length of Japan by the sluggish local train and, while it may have taken us a couple of more days, it afforded us a wonderful opportunity to get well acquainted with the Japanese landscape. Japan fits a population half that of the USA onto a chain of islands about the size of California. Considering that huge mountains cover half of that space, the Japanese have had to get very clever with their land use. Most of the hills covering the countryside have been leveled for farm fields, which are irrigated by countless diverted rivers. They say that of the 30,000 or so rivers in Japan there are only three that have not been dammed. We didn’t see any of the three."