Hikes – Susan Spann, Adventure, Mystery, and Mountains

Mt. Fuji, Take Two: Only a Fool

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, 1000 Summits Hikes, Hikes August 5, 2024August 2, 20241000 summits, climbing Mt fuji, Fujinomiya, Fujinomiya Trail, Fujisan, hiking, hyakumeizan, Japan

In May, I got a phone call from my friends Erica Berglund and (fellow author) Laura VanArendonk Baugh, who had a spur of the moment idea about climbing Mt. Fuji this year. I hadn’t officially planned to climb Mt. Fuji a second time. In fact, a Japanese proverb about the mountain says “every wise man climbs [Mt. Fuji], [but] only a fool climbs [Fuji] twice.” However, I’m always up for an adventure, so the three of us decided to risk the mercurial summer weather and head for the summit on July 15. We spent the night before the climb in

CHAPTER 34: Return to Mount Kōya

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, 1000 Summits Hikes, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion, Hikes September 4, 2023September 4, 2023100 Summits, 1000 summits, hiking, Japan, koya sanzan, Koyasan, Shinto, Yoryusan

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.

CHAPTER 33: I Love Rishiri

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, 1000 Summits Hikes, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion, Hikes August 14, 2023August 12, 2023100 Summits, 1000 summits, ferries, Hokkaido, Hokkaido Hiking, hyakumeizan, Japan, japan hiking, Mt. Rishiri, 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

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

“On Badger Mountain”: Hiking Nikko’s Mt. Mujina

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, Hikes June 13, 2022June 12, 2022Japan, Mujina, Nikko, Nikko Hikes, Tochigi

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.

A Late Spring Hike on Hakone’s Ashinoko West Bank Course

Susan Spann Blog, Hikes May 29, 2022May 28, 2022Hakone, Hiking Japan, Japan Day Hikes, Kanto Hikes, Lake Ashi, West Bank Hiking 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.

Makuyama, Blooming Trees, and Soft Serve: Yugawara’s Ume Festival

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, Hikes March 7, 2022March 5, 2022hiking in Japan, Japanese plum blossoms, Makuyama, Makuyama Koen, ume, ume matsuri

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).

Hiking Lake Toya: A Day on Nakajima

Susan Spann Blog, Hikes January 31, 2022January 29, 2022hiking, Hokkaido, Hokkaido Hiking, Hokkaido Nature Tours, Lake Toya, Nakajima, Oshima, Toyako

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.

New Year’s Eve on Mt. Tsukuba (筑波山) (2021)

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, Hikes January 1, 2022January 1, 2022hiking, hiking in Japan, hyakumeizan, Ibaraki, Mt. Tsukuba, Tsukubasan

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

Hiking Mt. Muine (Sapporo, Hokkaido)[#140]

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, Hikes December 15, 2021December 10, 2021hiking, Hokkaido, Hokkaido Hikes, Hokkaido Nature Tours, Japan, mountain hut, Mt. Muine, Muineyama

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.

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