why not hiking in Japan

[mugen2008]

What does Japan makes you think of? An ultra-modern megalopolis like Tokyo and Osaka, with their skyscrapers, their busy life? At the opposite does it bring to mind Zen, calm and minimalist atmospheres? Or maybe older images of samurai, geisha or sumo wrestlers? Finally, Japan does represent for you an exciting cultural destination with its forward-looking fashion, architecture, music, graphic art, animation, manga and more?

What if Japan was all at the same time and even more: a sunrise on Mount Fuji, treks along endless ridges in the Japanese Alps, bathing in a natural hotspring in the middle of a mountain stream, volcanoes powering under you feet with smoke columns rising from the ground, the calm atmosphere of a thousand-year-old temple at the top of a mountain, wild landscapes of Hokkaido…

Located on a subduction zone between the Pacific, Philippine and Eurasian Sea plates, Japan is subject to intense geologic movements that have erected mountains and volcanoes during the last 20 million years. A country of mountains that occupy about ¾ of the territory; there is a stark contrast between over crowded cities on the plain and the mountainous expanses. The Japanese mountains have never been exploited for agriculture or livestock farming, leaving them, by comparison, almost virgin!

The consequence is that that Japan is one of the most wooded nations amount industrialized countries (forest covers about 2/3 of the Japanese islands). In the past, mountains were thought of “a beneficial place of wealth vegetation”. In a word: the forest. The dual meaning is an apt description of these wooded mountains that also maintain the nation’s precious water resources for rice cultivation, crop irrigation, but also prevent flooding in the plains during rainy months.

With Mount-Fuji (3,776 m/12,388 ft) as the highest peak, Japanese massifs are less elevated than those of Europe and don’t have the same alpine landscapes. Still, they are no less striking with their lush vegetation and misty wooded mountainsides. Japan offers an unexpected, particularly pleasant and relaxing panorama that can be found in only few places in the world: the view you can have from the rotenburo (outdoor hot springs) on the mountain you just climbed. It’s a MUST-do!

Mountains also refer to : “a sacred place where gods live and were you go to train and put your faith to the test”. Of course “training” meant a spiritual training in the form of long periods of meditation in isolation. As in many civilizations, mountains are sacred. If in some of them the sacred aspect of their mountains prohibits climbing them, it is not the case in Japan! To the contrary, they are a place for pilgrimage and worship. Many summits have an altar if not a temple creating a unique atmosphere at their top.

Finally, thanks to the combination of cold wind coming from Siberia and rain coming from the Pacific Ocean the Japanese mountains have an exceptional snowfall in the winter. In winter 2006 snow fall accumulated a record 3.50 m (11.5 ft) in less than a week. Every spring the opening of the “Tateyama kurobe alpine route” in the Northern Japanese Alps attracts a lot of tourists who go up and down by bus or walking. To allow people into the area, trench machines have to dig anywhere from at least 10 m (32.8 ft) up to 20 (65.6 ft) m of snow to reach the road! It is spectacular! With such amazing snow conditions the possibilities are infinite, free riding, mountaineering, snowshoeing.

You are still hesitating to visit its mountains? Yet, Japan has all the assets of a first class mountaineering destination.
You will live a unique experience between cultural discoveries, hot springs, spirituality and breathtaking landscapes.

pictures are available on my web site Tōzai Trek and my friend's web site www.light-of-earths.com - Landscape images by Bernard Languillier

[burkhartdesu]

That was informative, but the majority of us already know the "beauty of Japan"... Though you may be over-romanticising it a bit.

Nobody here is really "hesitating to visit"... Most of us have been, or are dying to go.


I've hiked in Japan, and I plan to do so again in the future.


I'm starting to think that this schpeel is either a plug for your website, or an essay for school.

[mugen2008]

You might be right but I still think that if a lot of information is available about visiting Japan modern or traditional sides, there's a few emphasis made on its nature and its mountains and I find it a pity. Ask any westerner who is planning a trek abroad, nobody is gonna talk about Japan, they'll talk about Europe's Alps, Himalaya, South America or New-Zeland which are great places but Japan also. I just wanted to share this, as people planning to visit Japan might not all be aware of this aspect of Japan.

Cheers

[samurai007]

I went hiking all over in Japan, including the Japan Alps, Miyajima Island, Nachi Falls, etc. It's a beautiful country to hike in, and there are many pilgrimage trails, hiking paths, etc.

[Raisthlin]

ive hiked the kamikochi's Youve got some nice pictures. Have fun!

[Nyororin]

Yama has yet another meaning in ancient Japanese: “sacred place where gods live and were you go to train and put your faith to the test”.

That`s a new one to me, and I studied language history and linguistics. :P
Maybe that is something that was DONE on mountains, but the word never meant that. Some seriously creative translation going on here.

[Sangetsu]

Japan is a very mountainous country, and a great deal of the land is covered by forest. It really is a hiker's paradise, and I've enjoyed many hikes around Hakone, and in the area where I live.

My girlfriend and her family are going hiking in Yukashima in May, and I'm planning to climb Mt Fuji late in the summer. In the meantime, I get a lot of exercise hiking in the hills and forests in the local area.

This Sunday my gf and I will be going to a hanami party at the nearby lake, and afterward we plan to hike to a temple at the top of the nearest mountain. It's not a far hike, nor is it very difficult, but the springtime scenery is beautiful, much better than anything you can find in the cities.

[MMM]

I think you are preaching to the choir, Mugen. Some of my favorite hiking is in central and north Hyogo. Some amazing hikes are literally less than 30 minutes from downtown Kobe.

[mugen2008]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

That`s a new one to me, and I studied language history and linguistics. :P
Maybe that is something that was DONE on mountains, but the word never meant that. Some seriously creative translation going on here.

Nyororin,
Sorry to contradict you but I just quoted the Japanese dictionary. It's not a special dictionary about mountain words or anything, it's a standard Japanese dictionary. I use the 大辞泉 (editor is 小学館) if you want to check by yourself. Here is what it says :
- for the fact that Yama refers to forest :
"日本では古来、草木が生い茂り、
さまざまな恵みをもたらす場所としてとらえる。"
- for the fact that it refer to a place "where gods live and were you go to train and put your faith to the test”, here is the next phrase in the dictionary :
"また古くは神が住む神聖な地域として、
信仰の対象や修行の場とされた"

You don't even have to go to the librairy to confirm it, the 大辞泉 dictionary is available online on Yahoo web site. Here is the page about 山 :
Yahoo!辞書 - やま【山】


MMM,
I might be "preaching to the choir". In fact I wrote this article for a mountain web site magazine first and I just put it as it was on this forum. I though it also had this place here but it sounds like a mistake. Or I should have wrote it differently...

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by mugen2008

Nyororin,
Sorry to contradict you but I just quoted the Japanese dictionary. It's not a special dictionary about mountain words or anything, it's a standard Japanese dictionary. I use the 大辞泉 (editor is 小学館) if you want to check by yourself. Here is what it says :
- for the fact that Yama refers to forest :
"日本では古来、草木が生い茂り、
さまざまな恵みをもたらす場所としてとらえる。"
- for the fact that it refer to a place "where gods live and were you go to train and put your faith to the test”, here is the next phrase in the dictionary :
"また古くは神が住む神聖な地域として、
信仰の対象や修行の場とされた"

You don't even have to go to the librairy to confirm it, the 大辞泉 dictionary is available online on Yahoo web site. Here is the page about 山 :
Yahoo!辞書 - やま【山】

None of that contradicts what I said. "古くは神が住む神聖な地域として、
信仰の対象や修行の場とされた" isn`t saying that is what the word MEANS. It isn`t a definition - it`s telling about mountains. Saying they were in the past thought of as locations where the gods lived and were used as places for spiritual training. I don`t have any issue with what you are saying other than saying that the WORD means that. Which is basically what I said above - that may have been done at the location, but it isn`t what the word itself means.

So, yes, mountains were thought of as locations where gods lived and many were used in a spiritual way. But "YAMA" doesn`t/didn`t mean that any more than "DESERT" means the same in English, despite having been used in the past as a location for spiritual training.