100 Famous Mountains in Japan
百名山 or a list of 100 Famous Mountains in Japan.
It has been in my bucket list to climb Mount Fuji while I am in Japan. And lucky enough, thanks to a good friend of mine who is an expert mountain climber, I was able to cross that off the list last summer.
The climb was quite brutal to be honest as the first 30 min was very steep, the uphill was generally quite rocky, and descending was even more difficult than climbing up. Particularly when descending, my knees hurt as the trail leading down was made up of loose rock and pebbles that made it slippery. I suggest you to bring trekking poles that would keep you stable and put less pressure on your legs.
Anyways, I thought I would never climb another mountain after the pain in my legs post-climb, but I decided my goal for 2022 is to climb 3 mountains as I wanted to check how much I can improve my cardiovascular endurance during the year. And in July I climbed 磐梯山 (Mount Bandai), which is another mountain in the list of 100 Famous Mountains in Japan. It rained the day before, which made the trail quite slippery (especially the rocks), but the panoramic view at the summit was absolutely stunning despite the cloudy weather.
And last weekend, I was able to climb 苗場山 (Mount Naeba), which is a mountain in Niigata prefecture. This was the most beautiful mountain out of the 3 that I summited in Japan. The trail was comparatively pleasant, as it had a mix of challenging uphill, flat marsh areas, and downhill. At the marsh areas & the summit, there were wooden benches to rest or eat at. And although it was only the beginning of October, the leaves were already turning colour up on the mountain, which made the view even more stunning.
Below are the full list of 100 Famous Mountains in Japan in Japanese or English for your reference. The Japanese website has ratings for each mountain on the difficulty level, amount of effort required for the climb, and expected duration of the climb.
For next time, I might want to climb Tateyama, which my friend picked as the most beautiful mountain he has ever climbed in Japan. He climbed few mountains over 4 days at that time he climbed Tateyama, so I may wish to climb for just a day or two.
Sandra
