There are some mountains or area, especially in Japanese Alps, where you have to stay overnight to get the summit unless you are not a trail runner. In such a case, you can choose either staying at the mountain hut or camping. Mountain hut Generally speaking, there are two kinds of mountain huts in Japan, a full service huts with Japanese style bedding and wilderness huts that has no food service nor bedding. The former is called “山小屋（やまごや・yama goya）”1 in Japanese, and most of them has name the mountain name or area name plus “小屋（こや・koya/goya）”, “山荘（さんそう・sanso）”, “小舎（こや・koya/goya）”, “ヒュッテ（ひゅって・hutte）” or “宿舎（しゅくしゃ・shukusha）”. For example, one of the biggest hut “白馬山荘（はくばさんそう・Hakuba sanso）” located […]
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There are some mountains in Japan where you have to take a public bus to get to the trailhead even though you wish to get to there by your own car. That is called “my-car-kisei(restrict private cars)” in Japanese. Most of them are executed throughout the year, but there are a few place where you can go there by your own car without its high season. Purpose of this regulation The purpose of this regulation is to avoid heavy traffic jam and protect the natural environment. Nowadays, this regulation is widely known and getting an understanding by hikers. What you should know about this regulation If you wish to hike the […]
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Have you ever heard of “One Hundred Mountains”? Every hiker in Japan knows it, and most of senior hiker aims at completion of that One Hundred Mountains (Sometimes it is ridiculed as a stamp-rally because some of them are not interested in nothing but the summit and they don’t enjoy process of hiking). Anyway, when you know about or plan to hike in Japan, it is a conservative idea to see One Hundred Mountains at first. What is “One Hundred Mountains”? One Hundred Mountains is come from book that is written by Kyuya Fukada (1901−1973) who was a famous for both as a novelist and a mountaineer. Although that book […]
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