Can I get me a hunting license here? Collecting antlers on the way to Mt. Kasatori.

 OK, I didn't really need a license because I didn't do any hunting in the conventional sense of the word.  I did do some trophy hunting today though.


This guy


Yamanashi deer skull 鹿の頭

Astute readers of this blog (which is probably my wife and no one else) will recall that I came across a deer carcass the other day.  It had been dead about three weeks and was nearly picked clean.  I wanted the antlers but couldn't detach them as the only tool I had with me was a jackknife.

I went back today with a tool worthy of the challenge.  I brought my Japanese-made titanium-ceramic knife with a serrated blade.  It really is a glorious instrument.  

It took about 20 minutes to cut the antlers off and I was a little worried my glorious Japanese-made titanium-ceramic knife with a serrated blade might not actually be up to the task.  It was much more difficult than I thought it would be and the knife is now trashed.  It may sound morbid, but it made me reflect a bit on the amputation of human limbs.  I'll bet the doctors in the US Civil War had massive forearms.

Here is the result of my labors:

Deer antlers 鹿の角

Now all I have to do is figure out how to boil these suckers clean.




If all this gore and such is grossing you out, perhaps you'd rather check out some live deer that I saw today.  These were within sight of the Kasatori Hut.









Since I was already nearby, I popped up to the top of Mt. Kasatori for the second time in as many weeks.  I really like this mountain.  You should check it out.  There is a reason that it is one of Yamanashi Prefecture's 100 Famous Mountains.  There was still a fair amount of snow on top.  It made me almost wish I hadn't left my crampons at home this am.

笠取の山頂　Top of Mt. Kasatori



Finally, I think I probably posted a picture of this before but it's worth another mention.  This little marker denotes the point of origin for 3 rivers.  Depending on which side of the marker a raindrop falls on, it may drain into Suruga Bay via the Fuji River, into Tokyo Bay by Haneda Airport via the Tama River or into Tokyo Bay via the Arakawa River.

I think that is cool.

小さな分水嶺 Origin of three rivers

That's all for now.

Caveman out.






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Location: Mt. Kasatori, Otaki, Chichibu, Saitama 369-1901, Japan

4 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 25, 2021 at 5:48 PM

    I hope this isn't the 3rd time you're getting this. I keep hitting the wrong button on my smartphone. Your mentioning the "medical care" the Civil War soldiers had to survive (and many didn't) reminded me of the origin of the idiom "bite the bullet". They'd literally give the soon-to-be amputee a bullet to gnash his teeth on while they were sawing off the wounded limb. I guess those who were wounded "lightly" enough to have a choice would decide to take their chances with gangrene rather than head to the medical tents. War was even more hell back then. Sigh.....

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  2. Pat BApril 25, 2021 at 6:13 PM

    Hard core.

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  3. UnknownApril 25, 2021 at 6:15 PM

    There, I think I posted correctly this time! To end on a much happier note than the post I just sent, Makiko and I again were hiking (or driving?🤔) somewhere where we came across the watershed for I think it was what ended up being the Mississippi, Colorado and Columbia (?) Rivers. In other words, like the marker you saw here, a couple cm either way could determine whether a given raindrop would flow east, west, or north and end up in the Atlantic, Pacific or Arctic Ocean. As we looked at this, we were thinking that God is very cool :)

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    1. Pat BApril 25, 2021 at 6:21 PM

      I thought it was so cool to come across that marker. I have officially traveled the Tamagawa River from beginning to end. It is a pretty neat thing to contemplate how just a little deviation in something's origins makes all the difference with where it ends up later.

      I wish I could figure out how to edit the colors of these comments so they will stand out better.

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