This time, I joined a day tour and enjoyed the magnificent scenery of the Zao mountain range from the bus, with endless coniferous forests outside the window. Along the way, the guide talked about Zao’s famous snow monsters, but also pointed to patches of trees that looked somewhat withered and sighed. The guide explained that climate change and warmer winters in recent years have led to an infestation of a certain insect, causing the snow monsters of Zao to shrink in scale year after year and possibly become increasingly rare in the future.
Although I visited in June and saw lush green mountain roads and ridgelines, the guide said the mountains are covered in fall colors in autumn and turn into a dreamlike world of snow monsters in winter. But hearing about the impact of global warming on the ecosystem, I couldn’t help feeling a little heavy-hearted and reflective even as I admired the beautiful scenery.
