Annually during the annual JDS Essence of Autumn Japan photography tour, our workshop leaders always introduce participants to the sea of clouds.  It was once known in Japan, as “the valley of the dragons,” in Niigata.  And across Japan, there are several locations today known as “the sea of clouds” or the valley of the dragons. Due to the unique unique geographic and weather conditions which allow the sea of clouds to form on and over land, it gives the impression of Nirvana dreamscapes, the surrounding mountain peaks with ancient trees and some land masses appear to be levitating in heavenly clouds.  Some would compare them to sea stacks protruding from the Ocean, but rather than water, these ones are sticking out of the clouds. 

The best time of year to visit and photograph these natural wonders is in the autumn, but spring is also a great time to view them, and next week our workshop leaders will start the JapanDreamscapes annual cross country cherry blossom photo tour, and they are hopeful that the highland roads will be open allowing access to view the sea of clouds in the valley of the dragons.  On a side note if you do a web search for ‘the valley of the dragons’, you will find a science fiction film from 1961, the movie is based on Jules Verne’s fantastic works, which take the reader on the adventure of a lifetime!  On another side note, Japan is over 75% unpopulated wilderness, with an abundance of wildlife, across Japan there are over one hundred and twenty thousand snow monkeys.  And even more interesting, and mysterious is across Japan, there are over one hundred and sixty thousand Kofun tombs and villages associated with them, and on my workshops we visit a few.  The Kofun period of Japan spanned from about 250 C.E. to 538 C.E.  Egypt has the pyramids Japan has the Kofun mounds.   And as an amateur historian, one of our workshop leaders has a concrete theory who built the Kofun mounds and villages, partly from Ainu stories handed down though generations, and from folklore of ancient craftspersons who built Japans ancient Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, that some of these ancient temples and shrines were built over Kofun burial sites and villages.  Join us for a Japan photo workshop and hear his theories!