July 2023 – Susan Spann, Adventure, Mystery, and Mountains

CHAPTER 31: Rausu Rainbow

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion July 31, 2023July 31, 2023

(September 18-19, 2018) This photo supplement tracks the events in CLIMB: Leaving Safe and Finding Strength on 100 Summits in Japan. The captions offer “extra features” that didn’t make it into the book. After leaving Mount Shari, my friend and guide Ido Gabay and I drove to Utoro, on the coast of Hokkaido’s Shiretoko Peninsula, to see the salmon run and climb the next hyakumeizan on our list: 1,660-meter Mt. Rausu. We spent the rest day before the climb watching the salmon run in Utoro, and hiking at Shiretoko Goko (Shiretoko Five Lakes). It was sunny that morning, but a storm had

Foodie Friday: Inuyama Castle Parfait

Susan Spann Blog, Food July 28, 2023July 26, 2023foodie friday, inuyama, inuyama castle parfait, Japanese sweets, parfaits

After visiting Inuyama Castle, I stopped at 1st Terrace, a little cafe directly across the street from the castle entrance, where the featured menu item was something called an “Inuyama Castle Strawberry Parfait”…

Mountain Outtakes: Sharidake

Susan Spann Blog, Hikes July 26, 2023July 26, 2023inspiration, Japan, mountains, photography, Sharidake

I shot this image in 2018, on the descent from Sharidake (1,547m), a stratovolcano in Hokkaido’s Daisetsuzan National Park. It’s interesting to look back on it now, because at the time the section of trail in this photo (which is quite a bit steeper than it appears, but clearly not a difficult descent) felt really scary. At that point, I’d climbed fewer than 30 mountains, all of them in the five months leading up to this ascent. I still didn’t really know what I was doing–personally or on the trail. The key is, I did it anyway, and as a

CHAPTER 30: Water Over Rock

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, 1000 Summits Hikes, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion July 25, 2023July 26, 20231000 summits, 100Summits, Climb, hiking in Japan, hyakumeizan, Sharidake

Sharidake (Mt. Shari) is a 1,547-meter stratovolcano in northeastern Hokkaido, near the Shiretoko Peninsula. Due to its remote location, my friend and guide Ido Gabay (of Hokkaido Nature Tours) arranged for us to spend the night before the hike in a lovely mountain hut near the trailhead, so we could get an early start…

TeamLab in Saitama: “Shmoos” Among the Trees

Susan Spann Art, Blog July 20, 2023July 20, 2023Japan, Japanese culture, shmoo, Teamlab, travel

Earlier this summer, my friend (and fellow author) Jonelle Patrick and I hopped a train to Saitama Prefecture, West of Tokyo, to visit “Resonating Life in the Acorn Forest,” the permanent TeamLab exhibition in Saitama’s Musashino Woods.

Sunset on the Seto Sea

Susan Spann Blog July 16, 2023July 16, 2023

One of my favorite images from the last six months: sunset on Japan’s Seto Sea, as seen from the deck of the Sunflower Ferry, heading north. The ferry had just departed from Kyushu (Japan’s southernmost major island) on an overnight trip up the Seto Sea to Osaka. I love boats, and the sea, almost as much as I love trains and mountains; I’ll share more about this journey, and the others I’ve made this year, very soon!