For people that are into outdoor activities (hiking, camping, bouldering, kayaking, etc.), I would like to hear from you. What are the biggest problems that you have faced when participating or trying to get into outdoor activities in Japan?
For me, I wanted to camp at places outside of the norm, the norm being Okutama. I wanted to go to places that only Japanese people knew/ weren’t overrun with tourists. I didn’t have many Japanese friends that were into outdoor activities so I had to stick to finding info online. Granted this was 10 years ago, the quality of the online resources was lacking. I was also disappointed to find out that when you say camping in Japan, 99% of people think “glamping” as opposed to America where camping usually equates to going in the backcountry and being in locations with little to no people.
What other troubles/ disappointments have you encountered within the outdoor activity realm here in Japan?
Ive also made a short multiple choice questionnaire for those who don’t mind sparing 2 extra minutes. If you’re interested in participating please DM me and I will send the link to the questionnaire.
Cheers!
4 comments
I don’t think I encountered any problems. If anything, hiking and camping here is quite easy because of how well maintained trails, campsites and huts are and how well documented everything is.
If you know Japanese, websites like Yamareco have an endless library of user-submitted trail records, with gps tracks and timings, photos, weather reports, access information. It even has an interactive route planner powered by 山と高原地図 and a companion app.
If you don’t, something like Ridgeline Images has a wast collection of routes in English.
> I was also disappointed to find out that when you say camping in Japan, 99% of people think “glamping” as opposed to America where camping usually equates to going in the backcountry and being in locations with little to no people.
As usual with all the “99% of Japanese people think”, this is just wrong. There are tons of serious hikers/campers here. It all depends on your social bubble.
LEECHES. No terrestrial leeches in North America so I was unprepared. I’m going to try making some leech garters this year, like the kind they use in India.
I’m disappointed by how many cool places I can’t get to without a car: routes with tunnels are a significant barrier to bike camping even when the distance would be manageable.
I wish you could do wild camping in national parks, but I’m also kinda glad you can’t.
Leeches and hornets.
Outdoor gear is expensive compared to the US/Europe.
Private access roads. The situation in the southern alps around akaishi is annoying. Kamikochi and Norikura fine, they are busy but southern alps, grr.
Almost no freeze dried meals.
Huts are crazy expensive, especially now because of covid. Add the tolls and gas and all the sudden you are spending 25k for an overnight hike.
The biggest drawback is that it’s harder to do multi-day hikes in the wild, compared to the US at least. There just isn’t that much contiguous wilderness. On the flip side, there are trails/routes that go in and out of settled areas, mountains, farmland, etc., which is actually quite cool though a different experience. Look up the “Long Trail” routes.
If you can Japanese, search for 無料キャンプ場 and there are pages that list free or very cheap campgrounds. I did a trip only staying at those and it was pretty cool.