As I sit in my study here in Kurohime in the hills of northern Nagano Prefecture, through the window I can see 2,053-meter Mount Kurohime, a dormant volcano that’s forested to the top.
Legend in these parts has it that the mountain is the home of a beautiful princess who consented to fly off with a black dragon to save her people from the earthquakes and floods the angry beast was inflicting on them.
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