Chichibu’s lights beyond the cherry blossoms An April night at the summit, and a view that makes me want to lower my camera

After stopping for soba in Chichibu, I headed to Minoyama Park with my friend. We’d been talking about seeing both the night view and the cherry blossoms, so I kept checking my camera battery from the moment we set off. I followed the road from the Minoyama Entrance up to the summit, parked, and stepped out into air so chilly I wanted to pull my coat collar close. It was a much quieter night than the day I’d spent in town.

I lifted my eyes in front of the lookout and spotted little lights through the cherry branches. A little farther along, I could make out how the mountains wrapped around Chichibu. Flowers right in front of me, the town far below. The distance between them fascinated me; I kept looking from the blossoms to the city and could hardly bring myself to frame a shot.

I pushed my fingers out from the cuffs of my white coat and finally took a photo. When I looked down at the screen, I realized the night view changed depending on how much of the cherry branches I included. My friend waved from a little way off, so I walked over. Lights that had been hidden by the branches came into view, and I thought, even from the same lookout, the scene changes so much depending on where you stand.

I’d been stopping every time I found a place I wanted to photograph, but before long I lowered the camera to my chest. While I checked the shots, the wind stirred the branches. The clustered blossoms fell into shadow, while the city lights shone through the gaps. Watching those small changes, I wanted to stand there and take it all in more than I wanted another photo.

Before we headed home, my friend and I took one more look over the city from the lookout. The place where I’d eaten soba earlier and the road we’d driven up were both somewhere in that patchwork of lights. Down below, Chichibu would soon look like the town I knew again, but I wanted to remember how it looked from up here. I put my camera away, slipped my hands back into my coat sleeves, and looked once more through the cherry branches.