koboyama – Susan Spann, Adventure, Mystery, and Mountains

CHAPTER 24: To Play With Crows

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion February 27, 2021March 21, 2021Climb, crows, gongenyama, hiking in Japan, Japan, Japanese crows, Kōbō, Kobo Daishi, koboyama, Mt. Kōbō

August 14, 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. August is not the best month for mountain climbing in Japan. It’s hot, humid, and generally unpleasant in Tokyo, and while the more mountainous surrounding prefectures are somewhat better, it’s still a challenging (and potentially dangerous) time to exercise. That said, when you’re trying to climb 100 mountains in 365 days, you haven’t got the luxury of waiting on the weather, so with the summer heat in full swing,

The Headless Buddhas of Koboyama

Susan Spann Blog August 24, 2018Buddha, Buddhism, history, Japan, koboyama

While hiking Koboyama, I passed many shrines and temple buildings, indicators of the mountain’s history and holy status. However, the most poignant of these was not identified with a roadside sign, or even set at a noticeable place along the path. About twenty minutes past the summit of Koboyama, I came across a row of carved stone buddhas by the side of the trail. Each had been decapitated–and someone had replaced their heads with stones.

Hiking Kōbōyama (Part 2)

Susan Spann Uncategorized August 22, 2018August 19, 2018#100Summits, 100 Summits, Buddhism, hiking, Japan, Kobo Daishi, koboyama, Shingon

Last week’s high-temperature, high-humidity hike in Kanagawa Prefecture took me to the summits of three more peaks: Sangenyama, Gongenyama, and Kōbōyama. (For the story and photos from the first two peaks, click here.) The trail from Gongenyama’s summit down the ridge toward Kōbōyama starts off a highly civilized set of stairs with trees on either side. At the foot of the stairs, a short section of trail leads to a parking lot where people who prefer to drive to the summit, rather than hiking, can leave their vehicles for the 15-minute stair-walk to Gongenyama.

Hiking Sangenyama, Gongenyama and Kōbōyama (Part 1)

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog August 20, 2018August 19, 2018#100Summits, 100 Summits, climbing, gongenyama, hiking, Japan, koboyama, mountains, sangenyama

Last week I braved the 90-degree temperatures in Kanagawa Prefecture (south of Tokyo) to continue my 100 Summits journey with a “station to station” hike that included a traverse of three different mountains: Sangenyama, Gongenyama, and Kōbōyama. Since these three peaks are separate mountains, rather than a single “compound peak,” they count as three toward my 100 Summits Project goal and bring the current total to 22. (The August heat has slowed me down, largely for safety reasons but also because I’m working on finding a long-term rental apartment, which is challenging in Japan when you have a cat! But I