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 moreHiking Lake Toya: A Day on Nakajima
Hokkaido
Hiking Mt. Muine (Sapporo, Hokkaido)[#140]
![Hiking Mt. Muine (Sapporo, Hokkaido)[#140]](https://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 moreHiking Mt. Tarumae [No. 139]
![Hiking Mt. Tarumae [No. 139]](https://www.susanspann.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Tarumae-West-Summit-720x300.jpeg "Hiking Mt. Tarumae [No. 139]")
My friend Ido* and I kicked off my recent (Autumn 2021) hiking trip to Hokkaido with an ascent of Mt. Tarumae–a 1,041-meter active stratovolcano not far from Tomakomai in southern Hokkaido.
Read moreHappy (Hokkaido) Halloween!
During my recent hiking trip to Hokkaido, I stopped by Niseko to see the town’s unusual–and delightful–Halloween display.
Read moreHiking Mt. Yotei
Mt. Yotei, also known as Ezo-Fuji for its resemblance to Japan’s most famous peak, is a stratovolcano located in Hokkaido’s Shikotsu-Koya National Park.
Read moreCHAPTER 29: Lake Akan & Meakan
Although I originally planned for Hokkaido Nature Tours to provide me with only transport and guides for the climbs of Hokkaido’s hyakumeizan peaks, the company’s founder, Ido Gabay, constructed my itinerary in a way that not only maximized my chances of success (an important consideration, given my aggressive timeframe) but transformed the necessary “rest and travel days” into opportunities to experience much more of Hokkaido than I dared to hope for.
Read moreCHAPTER 28: Takuto & Tomuraushi
September 13-14, 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. Due to straining my knee on Tokachidake, I ended up canceling the next day’s scheduled climb of Poroshiri–which meant I absolutely would not be able to complete all 100 Hyakumeizan peaks in a single year. I’d already decided to shift the goalpost, however, and climb 100 historically and culturally important/sacred mountains instead, so the loss meant less to me than it otherwise would have. After a rest day, which
Read moreCHAPTER 27: Tokachidake
September 11, 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 11, my Hokkaido Nature Tours guide (who I’d christened the Yamabushi) and I drove approximately 200 kilometers from Sapporo to Daisetsuzan National Park in Central Hokkaido–home to some of the tallest mountains in Hokkaido, including our target for the day: 2,077-meter Tokachidake (Mt. Tokachi). What look like “normal” cumulus clouds in the photo above are actually clouds of smoke and steam rising from the
Read moreCHAPTER 25: Hokkaido Nature Tours
September 6-9, 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. I’d wanted to visit Hokkaido ever since learning the names of Japan’s four major islands (from north to south: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu) in grade school–and I’d been looking forward to this trip in particular for over a year. On my most difficult days in chemo, I read and re-read the amazing itinerary Ido Gabay of Hokkaido Nature Tours designed for me, and the anticipation gave me strength
Read moreOn the Road – and at the Races!
I’m sorry the blog has been more silent than usual lately – that’s changing, starting now. I’ve been quiet mostly because I’ve been climbing, and I have a ton of exciting moments to share! The #100Summits journey has taken me halfway across Japan, 1,100 kilometers north of Tokyo, to the northernmost major island, Hokkaido.
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