hyakumeizan – 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 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

CHAPTER 30: Water Over Rock

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, 1000 Summits Hikes, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion July 25, 2023July 26, 20231000 summits, 100Summits, Climb, hiking in Japan, hyakumeizan, Sharidake

Sharidake (Mt. Shari) is a 1,547-meter stratovolcano in northeastern Hokkaido, near the Shiretoko Peninsula. Due to its remote location, my friend and guide Ido Gabay (of Hokkaido Nature Tours) arranged for us to spend the night before the hike in a lovely mountain hut near the trailhead, so we could get an early start…

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. Yotei

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Hikes August 30, 2021December 3, 2021hikes in Japan, hiking, hiking in Japan, Hokkaido, hyakumeizan, Japanese mountains, Mt. Yotei, Yotei, Yoteizan

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.

CHAPTER 29: Lake Akan & Meakan

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion May 5, 2021July 25, 2023Hokkaido, Hokkaido Nature Tours, hyakumeizan, Lake Akan, Meakan, Mt. Meakan, Nihon Hyakumeizan

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.

CHAPTER 28: Takuto & Tomuraushi

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion April 21, 2021May 5, 2021100 Summits, hiking in Japan, Hokkaido, Hokkaido Hiking, Hokkaido Nature Tours, hyakumeizan, Nihon Hyakumeizan, 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

CHAPTER 27: Tokachidake

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion April 18, 2021April 21, 2021hiking, hiking in Japan, Hokkaido, Hokkaido Nature Tours, hyakumeizan, Japan, Mt. Tokachi, Nihon Hyakumeizan, 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

CHAPTER 22: Summit Dawn

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion January 27, 2021February 7, 2021Climb, Climbing mountains, Fujisan, hiking in Japan, hyakumeizan, Japan, Mount Fuji, mountains, Mt. Fuji

While it’s possible to climb up and back from the summit of Mt. Fuji in a day (and given the altitude of the Fujinomiya trailhead, I actually made several longer one-day round-trip hikes during the 100 Summits year), we opted for the more typical “overnight hike” in order to try and catch the sunrise from Fuji’s summit.

CHAPTER 21: Mount Fuji

Susan Spann 1000 Summits, Blog, CLIMB Photo Companion January 16, 2021January 27, 2021100 Summits, Climb, Climb photo companion, Fuji, hiking, hyakumeizan, Japan, Mt. Fuji

After years of waiting (and more than two dozen attempted viewings spoiled by clouds) this was my first full view of Mt. Fuji, from the window of my hotel in Fujinomiya, the morning we began the climb.

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