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LATEST NEWS from HIKE JAPAN - November 2007

Hike Japan is now entering its fifth year of operation. The first tour, the Imperial Pilgrimage Route , was in November 2003. It feels like we've come a long way since then - twenty two tours to date and more than one hundred clients. Hike Japan tours now feature an innovative range of walking routes, first class guides, brilliant food, and great accommodation.

The move to the new office in central Tokyo was completed in early spring this year. Working here full-time meant duly obtaining the appropriate visa. With much of the paperwork and stress over with, progress is now being made with taking full advantage of being an in-country based operator.

Looking north towards Tateyama

As well as making progress with the business, I've done a lot of walking over the last four years. Mountain walking in Japan is the thing if you aim to strengthen leg muscles! We continue to develop new tours and in 2008 will offer a great range of itineraries. This summer we explored hiking routes for new tours; Akaishidake, Arakawadake, Kaikomagatake, and Senjogatake in the South Alps, Yatsugatake, and the complete 7-day North Japan Alps traverse from Tateyama to Kamikochi. I did the latter route this September in the genial company of Robert, a strong walker from the US . We were caught in the tail of a typhoon on the most difficult section of the route and had to extend the hike by a day. We rested up in a mountain hut just before the difficult Daikiretto section on Hotaka. I decided that the section of the route from Yari to Hotaka was a little too difficult to include as a tour hiking route, so have decided that from Yarigatake we will in future trek to Otensho and out via the beautiful peak of Jonen. This is a great hiking route, a real classic. Any experienced mountain walker will love it, especially in the autumn when we plan to run the Tateyama to Kamikochi Alpine Route tour.

The Omote Ginza Route between Yari and Otensho

A representative from the Dublin-based charity, Fighting Blindness, and one from a London event coordination company, joined the Imperial Pilgrimage Route in May to do a recce for an event which Hike Japan is managing in-country in spring 2008. This will be as exciting a challenge for Hike Japan as I hope it will be for all the two groups of participants! I have wanted to organize charity treks in Japan for a long time, and am happy this is going ahead. Japan , now more affordable than ever with favourable exchange rates, is an ideal environment for charity challenges.

We will now run the Ocean Deep Mountain High tour from 8-22 June 2008. I had originally planned to run it in at the end of March so that we could see the migrating whales with their young as they pass the Ogasawara Islands . Having climbed Mt Fuji early this spring, however, I decided against running the tour so early in the year. The day we did the recce climb in March we got as far as the 7.5 station. It was bright and sunny but we were beaten back by the ferocious winds. Fuji is exposed to high winds as it rises in solitary splendour from the surrounding countryside and has no other mountains around to help deflect the wind. In the second week in June Mount Fuji will be much more approachable. Whilst just outside the main crowded season, any remaining snow on top will be soft so there should be no need for crampons or other winter gear. This will be the first time this tour has run. As well as the Ogasawara Islands (1,000km south of Tokyo but within the metropolitan administrative district), the tour features a climb of Mt Fuji, time in Tokyo, and hiking in Oze and the Nikko National Park marshlands.

The tours this year have been great and the groups wonderful as usual. There are a growing numbers of clients coming from the US, and from the West Coast in particular. Members wrote a good crop of haiku poems.

Our relationship with a US walking tour operator got off to a good start after Tom Takano led the group in Hokkaido in September. This was the first Hike Japan tour to be led entirely by a Japanese guide. I hope their will be many more tours led by Tom and other Japanese guides in the future.

On the path to Koguchi

Sweet Asuka Ruby strawberries

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