Under the volcano

[imomus]

If you click the photo above you can see a strip of pictures of my weekend in Hokkaido. Friday night saw a project by Lehan Ramsay's students at the Future University, with coloured projections aimed at ice sculptures. On Saturday I drove with Lehan and her artist friend Tatsuzo Hyakuda to a volcano north of Hakodate, Mount Komagakate, a 'pyroxene andesite stratovolcano', apparently. It's still active, and still so dangerous that the route to the top has been closed since the last eruption, in 1996. We skirted the lake in a soft blizzard, lunching on the freshest, most melt-in-the-mouth sushi I think I've ever tasted, then watched a geyser while dipping our feet in seismic water. Finally we bathed naked in a rotenburo, a gorgeous outdoor bath at a big hotel on the slopes of the mountain. I sat, wearing nothing but a straw hat, in an outdoor rockpool surrounded by deep, smooth snow, replenished by a carefully-framed mountain stream of steaming water straight from the volcano. Bliss! (No red-nosed monkeys, though.)

Comments

[pinkfoils.livejournal.com]

I like how in the 4th picture, right column (top to bottom), it looks like those seats have stylish little cushions, alas, I assume it is snow? Neat. Nature is a good designer. So pretty!

[(Anonymous)]

On the other hand the picture next to the one with the snow cushions shows that sometimes it would be good if our hero wore some slightly more stylish clothes (only slightly).

Everything else is a beauty.
As always :)

pablo

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Whaddya mean 'slightly more stylish clothes'! Military gear is never out of fashion! (More's the pity...) The only way I could look cooler is if I dressed up as Death himself, in a red hood, and brandished a viking longboat.

[(Anonymous)]

now that's a funky idea!
how about going to your office dressed up like that?

(please please do post the pics when you do)

Easy to understand how delighted you feel, the place looks gorgeous. What's happening on top of the iconic momus pic? those are not tombstones, I guess? and who are the people behind the postbox in the next one?
And do I read right "medieval wintersports"? eg?
And whose nooto is that?

pablo

[(Anonymous)]

*red* hood?
(I missed that at a first reading)

pablo

[junkerr.livejournal.com]

hey i really dig your handwriting, mine is god awful and not even i can read it usually.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

...or wore a toaster on my head.

[odyshape.livejournal.com]

His feet are pretty

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

There is something appealing about the juxtaposition of Japanese architecture with all that snow (see photo 11). Can you recommend any links on the geography of the area you are staying in?

[peripherus-max.livejournal.com]

The imagery behind the blue mailbox-ish object in the third photograph down on the right side looks like a Kara Walker piece executed by Willy Wonka. And all that SNOW! Could Momus begin work on his own huddled insular "Vespertine" soon during these bright and isolated nights in rural Japan?

Inside the volcano

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings, fellow Vulcanist! Loved the photos and reportage, as usual. Where you are right now looks remarkably like where I am right now, in the midst of the worst blizzard we've ever seen...

But just a few weeks ago, on Xmas day, I was climbing La Soufriere in Guadeloupe; at the top I stared down into the Port d'Enfer and breathed in the sulphuric fumes, which leave you strangely giddy. A heady natural effervescence, but no hot springs, alas. Will you be able to face the sterile confines of your futuristic university after such bliss? (Just jesting--it looks like the perfect petri dish for artistic incubation.)

Still trying to catch up,

x_z

"Pyroxene andesite stratovolcano" is either a good song title or something that would get my tiles really clean.

[krring.livejournal.com]

i like the ice sculpture idea. in the first photo, are those ice sculptures on either side of the path, too? they look internally lit.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yes, they're sort of flowerpots made of icy snow, with candles inside.

[biseinen.livejournal.com]

That's a great picture of Momus. I love it.
eD

ogenki desu ka?

[(Anonymous)]

hello.. your pictures are awesome.
im so jealous you went to hokkaido.. did you get to eat sushi??
-krista

Re: ogenki desu ka?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I skirted the lake in a soft blizzard, lunching on the freshest, most melt-in-the-mouth sushi I think I've ever tasted, then watched a geyser while dipping my feet in seismic water.

Re: ogenki desu ka?

[(Anonymous)]

awesome.. which sushi roll or raw fish is your favorite?

-krista