January 2018 – Page 2 – Susan Spann, Adventure, Mystery, and Mountains

A Fond Farewell – and an Unexpected Promise

Susan Spann Blog January 4, 2018airplane, Fuji, Japan, travel

When I left Japan in December, I bid Tokyo a bittersweet farewell – bitter, because I hate to leave, but sweet because I knew I’ll be returning soon. As always, I snapped a couple of photos out the airplane window. This was the best one: In between managing focus and trying to capture the beautiful sunset, I almost missed the most important detail of all. Can you see it?

100 Summits: Nihon Hyakumeizan 2018!

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog January 1, 2018December 31, 2017100 Summits, hyakumeizan, Japan, New Year, Nihon Hyakumeizan

Happy New Year, everyone! Now that 2018 is upon us, I’m officially launching My 100 Summits Project: Nihon Hyakumaeizan 2018! As I mentioned in December, I’m under contract to climb and write a book about the Nihon Hyakumeizan (100 Famous Mountains of Japan) as described in Kyūya Fukada’s 1964 mountaineering book by the same name. Fukada’s book has inspired generations of Japanese mountaineers (and many from other countries around the world) to climb his “Hundred Famous Peaks” – which Fukada selected on the basis of their history, beauty, and essential “Japanese” character. The world record for climbing all 100 peaks is