Photos of Yatsugatake-Mountains and Mt.Fuji, Taken from Hokuto-City, Yamanashi Prefecture

There is a group of mountains called “Yatsugatake” in Yamanashi prefecture and I’m showing it on the left hand photo . The name “Yatsugatake” means “Eight Mountains” because in fact it consists of eight mountains within a small area.
Yamanashi prefecture is famous for the location of Mt.Fuji. Thus Mt.Fuji can be seen beautifully from the “Yatsugatake” area as in the photo on the right. Actually there is an old tale about Yatsugatake and Mt.Fuji, which is…
     Long long ago, the eight mountains, which are now called “Yatsugatake”, was originally one huge mountain. The mountain was so proud of his height then he started to tell other mountains that he must be taller than the famed mountain, Mt.Fuji. Eventually the rumor what he was telling to other mountains reached Mt.Fuji, and it made Mt.Fuji so angry. Mt Fuji said “What a swelled-headed mountain he is!” and smashed the mountain. The blow was extremely strong so that the mountain was split into eight lower mountains, then other mountains started to call the eight “Yatsugatake”...

It sounds like Mt.Fuji had an irritable character back then. You may think it is unlike its beautiful appearance in the photo below, but since Mt.Fuji is a volcano she can be a capricious beauty. She? Yes, Mt.Fuji is generally worshiped as a goddess. With its graceful appearance I think it would have been natural to call it a goddess.

A Photo of A View of The Japanese Minami-Alps(South-Alps) Mountains

The title might sound strange but actually some mountain ranges called “Alps” exist in Japan although of course those are not the original names. 

The views of the mountain ranges remind Japanese of the mountains of the Alps in Europe, so the name “Alps” is known commonly for those. There are three of them, which are “The Minami-Alps(South-Alps) Mountains”, “The Chuo-Alps(Central-Alps) Mountains”, and “The Kita-Alps(North-Alps) Mountains”.

This photo is a view of the Minami-Alps(South-Alps) Mountains which is stretched over the border of Nagano prefecture and Yamanashi prefecture. The formal name of it is “The Akaisi Mountains”, but a national park include the area was named “the Minami-Alps National Park” officially in 1964, and a city in that area changed the name and became “Minami-Alps City” in 2002, though it sounds a little bit strange to have the word “Alps” in a name of a Japanese city.

Do you think those mountains looks similar to the Alps in Europe, too?