Walking the Corridor in the Sky

May 2026: On the border between Kochi and Ehime Prefectures
Walking the Corridor in the Sky

The UFO Line, which stretches along the border of Kochi and Ehime Prefectures, possesses scenery truly worthy of being called a "corridor in the sky."

Within the photograph, a world that lived up to that name unfolded.

Mountain slopes that seemed to embrace from both sides, valleys dropping deep into the center, and mountain ranges stretching out in layers beyond them.

The gaze is naturally drawn to the ridgeline, and before you know it, you are made to feel both the height of the sky and the depth of the mountains in a single breath.

It is clear that this is a place where one does not simply walk the mountains, but rather moves as if gently tracing the boundary between the sky and the earth.

Or, it felt as if I were riding on the back of a giant horse.

What makes this particular shot special is the intensity of the light.

The high-reaching sun illuminates the mountainside, bestowing a sparkle upon every single bamboo grass leaf.

While there is that brightness, deep shadows fall into the valleys, making the three-dimensional quality of the mountains stand out clearly.

The sky is blue as far as the eye can see, with thin, drifting clouds spread out to accentuate that blue.

It conveys the clear air unique to high altitudes on a sunny day, and even the sensation of the wind blowing through, making it a landscape that feels tangible despite being a photograph.

And above all, the most impressive element is the presence of the dwarf bamboo that fills the area around the mountain trail.

Although the green covering the slopes looks soft, its sheer volume is overwhelming, showing off the very life force of nature.

The narrow path extending along the ridgeline looks like nothing more than a faint line that humans have been permitted by the mountain to pass through.

Amidst the magnificent mountain scenery, human footsteps are very small.

However, I believe it is that very smallness that deepens the emotion felt when standing before this view.

This year, there was more dwarf bamboo than last year, and in some places, the trail was becoming difficult to see.

That change is not merely a matter of it being "hard to walk"; it teaches us that the mountain does not have the same face every year.

Nature is not something that remains perfectly maintained as a tourist destination; it lives its own time, changing its appearance with every season and every year.

Those who walk it must accept different conditions each time, moving forward while reading the signs of the mountain that are slightly different from the year before.

That is surely the value of visiting the same place again and again.

There is no flashy artifice in this photograph.

Yet, the vastness of the sky, the undulation of the ridgeline, the depth of the valleys, and the wave-like texture of the dwarf bamboo overlap to speak directly of the beauty of the mountains.

The appeal of the UFO Line is not just that it is "pretty."

It lies in being able to experience both the exhilaration of a road that seems to continue into the sky and the tranquility of knowing one's own smallness in the face of nature's overwhelming scale.

That is why people want to call this road the "corridor in the sky."

If I were to describe this scenery in one phrase, it would be: "A place to listen to the breath of the mountains, close to the sky."

In the dazzling light, the UFO Line of May 2026 showed me the depth of the bamboo unique to this year and the expression of the mountains unique to this year.

This single photograph quietly tells us that beautiful scenery is not a landscape that is too perfectly arranged, but one that makes us feel that nature is exactly as it is.