Tag - hiking

A Better Second Day on Chogatake

This is part two of my first attempt at Chogatake! If you missed part 1, click here to read it first! After a night of fitful sleep, I woke up around 4am because the sun was up and shining into the room. I could already hear the sound of the hut’s front door opening and closing as...

A Disastrous First Day on Chogatake

Chogatake is located in Nagano’s Middle Alps in Kamikochi, the same park as the beautiful Karasawa. Roughly translated, Chogatake means “Butterfly Peak” because of the butterfly-shaped snow patches visible in spring. I was itching for another overnight trip and chose...

A Trip to Mt. Fuji’s Popular 5th Station

This post was originally posted on my old site on January 30th, 2019. Some of the information is no longer accurate; see the ‘More Information’ header for the most recent details! Located on the north side of Mt. Fuji, the Fuji Subaru Line 5th Station is the most popular of...

Karasawa Cirque Pt. 3 — I am so done with rocks

This is the final part of my trip to the Karasawa Cirque! Miss a section? Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2! I was staring at my watch, watching it tick time away, when my alarm went off. “Op, 5:30. Time to ‘wake up’ and check the sunrise.” Luckily for us...

Karasawa Cirque Pt. 2 — Walking on Rocky Terrain

Hi there! This is Part 2 of my trip to the beautiful Karasawa Cirque. Miss the first part? Check it out here! Jessica and I ‘awoke’ to the sound of rain hitting our tent at around 6am. We finally left the tent around 8, our need to go to the bathroom greater than our annoyance...

View of the Karamatsu-dake mountain hut from the campground below

Karamatsu-dake: A hike in the breathtaking Japanese Alps

Exactly one year ago, I adventured out for my first solo hiking trip as a spontaneous birthday present for myself. This first foray into the Northern Alps remains in my top 5 memories of Japan, and I’ve wanted to do it again ever since! This year, the campground for Karamatsu-dake...

3 Tips for Finding Hiking Trailheads in Japan

When I first came to Nagano, I immediately wanted to go hiking — easier said than done. Where I had imagined a wealth of information ended up just being fruitless internet searches and unhelpful tourism brochures. Some of them did mention hiking, but there were no details! Well...

Hikers and clouds as we descend from Mt. Fuji

Climbing Mt. Fuji: The Descent

Mt. Fuji Summit Time: ~9am   Elevation: 3,775m To read about our ascent, click here! To read about our time at the summit, click here! The ascending trail is too steep and too crowded to have people descend on it at the same time, so the decent is actually carried out on a...

Climbing Mt. Fuji: The Summit Shuffle

Subashiri Trail Station 7.5 Time: 1am   Elevation: 3,200m To read the first part of this series, the ascent, click here! It’s so much fun to sleep on a rock-hard futon cramped between two other people in a hot room surrounded by snorers, 600m in vertical elevation away...