Tips for Conquering the Trail Alone Last year, I shared some general safety tips for hiking in Japan. This time, we’ll delve deeper into solo hiking and the extra precautions you can take to stay safe when exploring the trails on your own. Solo...
German Gairaigo Mountain Terms The other night, while watching Let’s Trek Japan on NHK World Japan, which coincided with the unseasonably early snowfall in Karasawa last year, the show mentioned the word “morugenrōto”. If you haven’t heard of it...
Make Your Safety a Priority As I go about preparations for my summer hike in the Southern Alps, I thought it would be timely to reflect on how safety figures into the mix. I hope you find it useful. Last month, the National Police Agency released...
Planning and Managing Risks on the Trail During my formative days hiking in Japan, I must confess I didn’t devote much time to planning my hikes even the overnight ones. My usual approach back then was print out a hike some random person posted on...
Backpacking Food Ideas and Meal Planning A common question I get is what food I pack for an overnight hike. The simple answer is foodstuffs that I enjoy eating and not too much as food is heavy. In stark contrast to my first overnight hike, when I...
Navigation Toolkit You Need to Safely Hit the Trail Over the years one thing this blog has tried to hammer home probably the most is keeping safe and out of harm’s way on the trail. Even with the best preparation it doesn’t take much for...
Tracking Down Campgrounds Like Pro There is no shortage of camping locations in Japan in fact there are over 3,000 campgrounds according to this Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) travel guide. They can be found in just about every nook and...
The Low-Down on Japanese Hiking Maps The map images and contents of this article have been obtained with the permission of the publisher (株式会社昭文社 Shobunsha Publications, Inc.). Writing about topographic maps i.e. a map which uses elevation contours...
Navigating the Japanese Wilds with Ease Way back when I first started this blog one of the first topics I tackled was Japanese hiking maps with the emphasise on reading common kanji found out on the trail. This post remains popular and is updated...
Tips for Planning a Successful Backcountry Adventure Planning hiking trips back in Australia was generally a pretty straightforward affair; find some willing accomplices, get a hold of a topo map, pack your gear and start driving. All of this could...