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A meizanologist's diary (140)
18 August: We’re all for intense intercultural encounters, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. Wholesome as it is, the hut’s breakfast comes without our habitual cup of coffee. So we vow to make...
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A meizanologist's diary (139)
17 August: You can run, you may drive, but you can’t hide - from the summer heat, that is. At 6am in the Ichinose car park, at 830 metres above sea level, the air feels cool as we pull on our mountain...
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Appropriating the Alps
How Japan got its local alpine ranges – and why some are for real.On the way down from climbing Ishizuchi-san in mid-March, I happened on a faded sign about the mountain’s climbing history. As in the...
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Biting the world heritage berry
A muted cheer for UNESCO's inscription of the highest Greek mountain.On the way up to the hut on Mt Olympus, there used to grow a spiky shrub festooned with glossy black berries. In case anybody was...
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A meizanologist's diary (138)
3 April We’ve climbed Arashima-dake in spring and autumn, but our winter attempt back in January didn’t get far. We’re hoping for better luck in this in-between season, when spring has sprung in the...
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A meizanologist's diary (137)
2 April (cont.): ideally, one shouldn't visit the Miidera just as its famous cherry trees come into full bloom. I mean, the temple has hundreds of Important Cultural Properties, and how can you pay due...
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A meizanologist's diary (136)
2 April: nansen-hokuba, 南船北馬, sailing south by boat, riding north on horseback is a phrase that denotes the urge to madly rush about. Overtaken by just such an impulse when a Japanese Rail Pass is...
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A meizanologist's diary (135)
29 March (cont): on the way home, we stop at the Hill of Oshitoishi. The place is listed in the Aso Geopark's application for Unesco heritage status as just "a group of megalithic andesite stones...
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A meizanologist's diary (134)
29 March: the day after climbing Takadake, our hosts drive us back towards Mt. Aso. This time, the idea is to take in the whole massif at a single glance. The car is parked near a spacious tourist...
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A meizanologist's diary (133)
28 March: the Sensei takes charge of the plan. We’ll drive up to the Sensuikyo parking lot at 800 metres or so, then tackle a ridge route up to Takadake, at 1,592 metres the highest of Aso-san’s Five...
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A meizanologist's diary (132)
27 March: if they won’t come to us, then we will go to them – ever southwards, on a series of trains, each slower, but with a hipper paint-scheme, than the last. Strictly speaking this is a social...
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A meizanologist's diary (131)
24 March: resisting the temptation to pour myself another cup of strong and fragrant coffee from the hotel’s “bottomless” pot, I catch the 7.05 bus to the ski resort of Sugadaira. “People who have...
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A meizanologist's diary (130)
23 March: As you know, the terms of the Japan Rail Pass do not explicitly disallow time travel. So I’m unfazed when the doors of the Hakutaka super express shush open at Ueda and vector me out into a...
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A meizanologist's diary (129)
15 March: after feeding the rat a bit yesterday, it’s time to give meizanology a break. Or so I think. Instead we’ll take in a garden on the way home. Takamatsu’s Ritsurin should fit the bill. So it is...
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A meizanologist's diary (128)
14 March (continued): The trees are shedding the morning's hoarfrost, loosing little snowslides that trickle down the gullies. Even on the way down, there’s a hint of nordwand to Ishizuchi’s headwall...
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A meizanologist's diary (127)
14 March: timing is everything when it comes to weather forecasting. While I’m throwing down a cup coffee and a cheese butty for breakfast, the clouds are still pressing down on today’s intended peak....
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A meizanologist's diary (126)
13 March: they say you shouldn’t travel on a Friday, but that wasn’t why the Sensei cancelled. The mountain weather forecast is still rating tomorrow’s weather as “c” for “unclimbable”. But, since I...
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A meizanologist's diary (125)
11 March: What about Genanpo, the Sensei asked yesterday. What, again, I thought. Heck, it once sprang a bear cub on us, and last year a white-out mugged us on the summit. Isn’t twice enough?The...
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A meizanologist's diary (124)
7 March: we’re close to summiting Monju-san, which is no great feat given that this local eminence has just one meter of height for every day in the year, when a senior citizen wielding hiking poles...
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A meizanologist's diary (123)
5 April: On the way to KIX via the southern route, we're flying across Korea about as close to its northern border as is legal or wise. Alas, window seats in these buffs are a bit of a toss-up. Either...
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