Author: Susan Spann

Merry Christmas Tree

Susan Spann Blog, Holidays & Observances ,
Merry Christmas Tree

Christmas is a popular holiday in Japan, even though less than 1% of the population identifies as Christian. People here love holidays, lights, giving (and receiving) gifts, and special food, so Christmas is pretty much a lock on every level. Lots of the major buildings have Christmas trees (many of which are enormous, natural trees rather than artificial ones), but “at-home” trees–to the extent they exist–are usually very small (think table-top size) and artificial. While down in Meguro having my hair cut and having lunch with my friend Kaitlyn last month, I saw some living Christmas trees for sale at

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CHAPTER 33: I Love Rishiri

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, 1000 Summits Hikes, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion, Hikes , , , , , , , , ,
CHAPTER 33: I Love Rishiri

September 23-24, 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. On the morning of September 23, 2018, in the wake of a violent storm, I boarded a ferry from Wakkanai (Japan’s northernmost major port) to Rishiri Island, a three-hour trip that I hoped would end better for me than it had for the crew of Gilligan’s Island. The sun came up over the water as the ship steamed north; I watched the sunlight break through the lingering clouds and

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CHAPTER 31: Rausu Rainbow

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion
CHAPTER 31: Rausu Rainbow

(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

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Mountain Outtakes: Sharidake

Susan Spann Blog, Hikes , , , ,
Mountain Outtakes: 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

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