I have a special affinity for the Mogami River. The first taste of the cherry-loving Yamagata prefecture for most of my English teacher friends was from a few thousand metres high in the sky. For me, it was a two-hour drive through the prefecture, following the Mogami River along the way. That drive along the river was the first of many. But it took me 11 years to realise that there was an abandoned ski field along the way.
Tsuchiyu-yama is a smallish mountain on the banks of the Mogami River near the border of Tozawa-mura and Shonai-machi. The peak boasts Genso-no-Mori, The Forest of Illusions, or The Phantom Forest, and an abandoned ski field, the former Mogami-gawa Ski field.
The Mist of The Mogami
The best time to be out along the Mogami River has got to be the early morning. This is when the clouds are well and truly out to play. This was the case when I went to climb Tsuchiyu-yama, and it was the case when I went to climb Kamewari-yama a week later too.
Looking up from the base of the mountain, all I could see was a summit shrouded in cloud, the famous Mogami mist. But my first port of call wasn’t Tsuchiyu-yama that day. No, I was aiming for an even more mysterious destination, the fabled Genso-no-Mori, AKA The Phantom Forest or The Forest of Illusions.
Genso-no-Mori is an ancient cedar forest full of mangled trees. The trees formed this way due to the heavy snowfall in the region that have well and truly stood the test of time. As an extremely mysterious location Genso-no-Mori is worthy of being a destination in and of itself. However, much like Tsuchiyu-yama, Genso-no-Mori is a bit tough to get to, and depending on the time of year, is also covered in bugs.Â