A Dependable Lightweight Tent from MSR Mountain Safety Research has been at the forefront of lightweight durable tent design for many years and the MSR Hubba HP solo backpacking tent is no exception. While this tent is no longer sold in the North...
Hiked on Sep 30, 2013 Aug 23, 2023 . Mt. Kinpu 金峰山 – Mt. Kobushi 甲武信ヶ岳 Duration: 3 days Distance: 26.8 km Elevation change: 1089 metres Highest point: 2599 metres Start: Mizugaki-sansou Bus Stop...
Hiked on Sep 21, 2013 Nov 10, 2024 . Mt. Daibosatsu 大菩薩嶺 – Daibosatsu-toge 大菩薩峠 – Tabayama Village 丹波山村 Duration: 2 days Distance: 20.7 km Elevation change: 1156 metres Highest point: 2056 metres ...
An Unexpected Visitor at Breakfast While sorting through my photos from this past weekend’s hike to Mt. Daibosatsu one shot in particular caught my attention. At first it actually kind of freaked me out as it appeared I had caught an ‘uninvited...
A Sure Way of Escaping Tokyo’s Summer Heat and Humidity Where is a good place to escape the suffocating heat and humidity of Tokyo? How about Hakone, that holiday mecca out Kanagawa way. So that was the decision we made a couple of months back and...
Tumultuous Beginnings and an Indeterminate Future Sado Island – a population that continues to decline. Back in the halcyon days of 1950 its inhabitants peaked at 125,000 while fast forward to 2011 and it has fallen markedly now hovering around half...
An Eclectic Summer Festival in the Boondocks of Tokyo One of the advantages of living in Tokyo is access to the incredible food on offer. However when the time comes to indulge in some ‘authentic’ foreign cuisine heading along to a Camp Zama...
An Encounter with Charles Jenkins For most people Sadogashima 佐渡ヶ島 or Sado Island conjures up an image of gold mines and a rugged coastline. For me however the first thing that comes to mind is ‘Jenkins’ as in Charles Robert Jenkins the one time U.S...
The Demise of an Ill-Conceived Idea – The Okutama Ropeway It seems de rigueur these days that anyone with an outdoor blog has a category devoted to haikyo 廃虚 or in the English vernacular urban exploration. This genre of writing and photography...
A Cave, Suspension Bridge and Dam – Ueno Village has it all! Apart from our hike to Mt. Kasamaruyama and visiting the Ireino Sono Shrine we took some time out to visit some of Ueno Village’s other tourist offerings including the Fujido...
Hiked on Jun 23, 2013 Aug 24, 2023 . Jizoutoge Pass 地蔵峠 – Mt. Kasamaruyama 笠丸山 Duration: 3.5 hours Distance: 4.3 km Elevation change: 479 metres Highest point: 1189 metres Start: Otsuchi Ueno...
The Tatami Walls of Nagataro June is a great month for getting out and exploring some unfrequented spots within easy reach of Tokyo before the pervasive summer heat sets in. This entry introduces Nagatoro-machi 長瀞町 an attractive riverside town on...