I want to plan a backpacking hike and camp potentially for multiple days. Does anybody know areas to look for camping sites or how to get permits for wilderness camping? Is it legal across Japan?
I would avoid real wilderness (there isn’t much of it) and stick to marked trails. In which case there are plenty of places to hike for multiple days.
Technically wild camping in non established campsites is not allowed. That being said as long as you do leave no trace, keep it quiet, don’t damage the area your camping it generally it’s okay.
I do bike packing and generally do this half the time when there’s no camping sites on my route. Literally every mountain will have a trail somewhere. Just pick somewhere that’s convenient for you to get to and go. I’ve recently been island hopping in Hokkaido and LOVE it. Domestic flights are fairly reasonable IMO.
There are lots of campers around the various mountain huts (山小屋)–but not all of them. It’s allowed around some, not others. Many of the campers also use the huts for meals, and just sleep in tents, since the huts themselves do offer food (dinner, breakfast, and a bento) but can be crowded at times and noisy (snoring).
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I would avoid real wilderness (there isn’t much of it) and stick to marked trails. In which case there are plenty of places to hike for multiple days.
Technically wild camping in non established campsites is not allowed. That being said as long as you do leave no trace, keep it quiet, don’t damage the area your camping it generally it’s okay.
I do bike packing and generally do this half the time when there’s no camping sites on my route. Literally every mountain will have a trail somewhere. Just pick somewhere that’s convenient for you to get to and go. I’ve recently been island hopping in Hokkaido and LOVE it. Domestic flights are fairly reasonable IMO.
There are lots of campers around the various mountain huts (山小屋)–but not all of them. It’s allowed around some, not others. Many of the campers also use the huts for meals, and just sleep in tents, since the huts themselves do offer food (dinner, breakfast, and a bento) but can be crowded at times and noisy (snoring).