By 5:00 a.m., we were already winding our way up narrow mountain roads, headlights illuminating mist swirling along the roadside. The destination: the highlands of Niigata, a place I return to year after year for its ethereal sea of clouds—known in Japanese as 雲海, ‘Unkai’. As we arrived and set up our tripods, the landscape slowly transformed. Wisps of fog rose languidly from the valleys, pooling and drifting between ancient cedars and the jagged silhouettes of distant peaks. The mountain village lights and world below us vanished, as if the mountains themselves were floating on a celestial sea. In these moments, you truly understand why poets and monks have long sought inspiration here.

The phenomenon of unkai is both a meteorological marvel and a spiritual experience. Certain regions of Japan, with their unique blend of geography and weather, create these dreamlike vistas—Nirvana landscapes where mountaintops appear to levitate above a sea of shifting white. In ancient Japanese folklore, these valleys were known as the valley of the dragons, and standing there, camera in hand, it’s easy to believe you might catch a glimpse of a mythical creature soaring through the mist. Some of my participants stood in awe, temporarily forgetting their cameras, lost in the moment's majesty.