We visited the Oze National Park recently, and visited many parts of the park including Mt Taishaku which I have already posted about. The subject of todays post is the lush green forests in the area known as “Buna daira”. “Buna” is the Japanese beech tree (Fagus crenata), and a daira is a flatland.

Forest stream at Nanairi, Oze National Park

Forest stream at Nanairi, Oze National Park

The first place we stopped at was a walking trail at Nanairi through a rather nice forest to some cascades. Part of the trail went alongside some giant power cables which detracted from the serenity somewhat but once in the forest again there was a lot of very nice Japanese forest to admire.

Moukake Falls at Oze National Park

Our next stop was a 2 minute walk to a lookout to Moukake Falls. The falls tumble out of the forest and are quite dramatic. Following this brief stop, we found a trail alongside the Moukake River, upstream of the falls, and the forest here was really nice. I spent a few hours simply enjoying the forest, the bright green of the early summer foilage unlike any shade of green we see in the Australian bush.

Japanese beech at Bunadaira, Oze

Beech forest at Bunadaira, Oze National Park

Forest at Bunadaira, Oze National Park

Ginryousou (Monotropastrum humile) at Oze National Park, Fukushima. A lack of chlorophyll results in its white colour

Another interesting find was a completely white flower which later research revealed to be a Ginryousou (Monotropastrum humile). Apparently it lacks the chlorophyll of green plants hence its white colour.