The Nyonin-michi–literally, “women’s trail”–circumambulates the rim of Kōyasan’s mountaintop plateau. Before the Meiji Era, this was as close to the sacred holy sites as women were allowed to come.
Read moreCHAPTER 34: Return to Mount Kōya
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
Read moreMountain 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
Read more“On Badger Mountain”: Hiking Nikko’s Mt. Mujina
Two weeks ago, I headed up to Nikkō, in Tochigi Prefecture, for what I suspect may be my last mountain hike before autumn. While it’s possible that the weather might cooperate long enough for me to sneak in another ascent before September, I’m not a fan of climbing in the extreme heat and humidity of Japanese summers (read: I hate it), and since the rainy season is already under way, this hike was probably the swan song for spring 2022.
Read moreA Late Spring Hike on Hakone’s Ashinoko West Bank Course
In late April, I headed south to Hakone for a repeat hike of the Ashinoko (Lake Ashi) West Bank Hiking Course. I hiked this trail last spring, too–and although this year I was too late for the sakura (cherry blossoms), any day you can see Mt. Fuji from the trail is an excellent day to hike.
Read moreMakuyama, Blooming Trees, and Soft Serve: Yugawara’s Ume Festival
Last weekend (February 26), I headed south to the town of Yugawara, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to climb a mountain and attend an ume matsuri–a festival dedicated to the blooming plum tree blossoms (known as ume in Japanese).
Read moreHiking Lake Toya: A Day on Nakajima
On the final day of last September’s hiking trip to Hokkaido, with a little more than half a day to kill before my train departed for Tokyo, my friend Ido and I headed out to Lake Tōya for one last hike.
Read moreNew Year’s Eve on Mt. Tsukuba (筑波山) (2021)
In December 2018, I established a new, personal New Year’s Eve tradition: I climb a mountain. In Japan (as elsewhere) New Year’s Eve is a time for personal reflection, and I reflect on myself, my year, and the world around me better on a mountain trail than just about anywhere else. The New Year’s Eve climb is also my way of expressing my hope that I’ll keep moving forward (and upward) and keep returning to the mountains in the coming year. This year, I chose to go back to the proverbial “scene of the crime”–the site of my original, 2018
Read moreHiking Mt. Muine (Sapporo, Hokkaido)[#140]
![Hiking Mt. Muine (Sapporo, Hokkaido)[#140]](http://www.susanspann.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Muine-Ascent-Bridge-720x300.jpeg "Hiking Mt. Muine (Sapporo, Hokkaido)[#140]")
Last September, I headed up to southern Hokkaido for a week of traveling and mountain climbing with my friend Ido. He knows Hokkaido far better than I do, so when he was extra excited about our climb of Mt. Muine, near Sapporo, I knew to expect something special . . . and as you’ll see, Muine delivered.
Read moreAn Autumn Visit to the Dragon King
On the first weekend in November, my son and I headed up to Tochigi Prefecture to hike the Ryuō-kyō (Gorge of the Dragon King). This was my third hike through the gorge, but the first time for my son, and I hoped we’d timed it correctly for autumn foliage. As you’ll see, it didn’t disappoint:
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