For about two weeks a year, a mountain pond slowly opens a giant blue eye. Kagami-numa — Mirror Pond — near the summit of Mt. Hachimantai, 1,600 meters up. The spring snow starts to melt. Snowmelt seeps in from the edges. The rim thaws into a glowing ring of turquoise water. The center stays a perfect disk of bright white snow with a dark core. From the trail above, it looks exactly like a dragon slowly opening its eye. Hikers climb up at sunrise, breath visible in the cold clear air, cameras down for a moment, just staring at that impossible blue. Then a child points and shouts. A Japanese family and an American family standing side by side burst out laughing together, pointing at the same ring of color glowing in the morning sun. Some years the eye holds for only a few days. Then the snow softens, the ring closes, and the dragon sleeps until next spring. That one perfect blue. That cold bright morning. A color you’ll remember for the rest of your life.