Hi Amy (and hi Rick! Long time no see!),
First, thank you for your PM and getting in touch with me. I haven’t been active much in BPL for quite some time, though I do check in occasionally. Mostly it’s because I’m not on the Internet as much as I used to be. I spend much more time outdoors now.
I wanted to thank you for all your information and help when I was inquiring about the Pyrenees. It was very helpful the first time in walked there in 2012, and again very helpful this last summer when I walked there with my fiancee.
Rick’s suggestions are pretty spot on, especially about the weather, though I wouldn’t say a long trek is impossible. You just have to be prepared to endure a lot of heavy rain, which means making sure to bring good rain gear, and probably use shelter that is more protective than a simple tarp. At the very least, a shelter with sides that go down to the ground. I use a pyramid shelter (Locus Gear Khufu) for most of my walks, and it has always gotten me through any weather. Rick’s mention about not being able to do wild camping is true in most of the national parks, but in many areas it is not strictly enforced. In high traffic areas like the North Alps, or in the mountains of Tohoku, you might have mountain hut staff and rangers checking the areas around mountain huts for wild campers, but since very few Japanese actually do wild camping, you don’t see it a lot. Probably the main reason that you’ll end up in designated campsites is that the mountains in Japan are very steep, and it is hard to find level sites where you can pitch a tent. The mountain hut areas tend to be the best places to camp, and are the places where the water sources tend to be, too. Just be prepared for sometimes very crowded campsites, with hard-packed or rocky ground, where water washes across the ground during the torrential downpours. On the whole, it is best not to use a shelter with a big footprint, both for the small wild campsites, and for the crowded hutside campsites.
There are almost no real long-distance trails in Japan, at least not dedicated ones. So you’ll have to string together existing trails. You have trails like the Shinetsu Trail in Nagano, the traditional Nakasendo trading route, or the Takashima Trail in Kyoto, but they are don’t extend into 1,500 kilometers or such. You might want to consider what writer Steven Pern did in the 1980’s, walking from the northeast tip of the northern island of Hokkaido, across the mountain ridges all the way south to the tip of Kyushu. He had to string together many trails, but managed to do most of it ( he injured himself halfway through and had to fast-forward by train for part of the walk.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKnbHA8mw9I).
The Tokai Nature Trail is an okay trail, but is misses a lot of the best mountains in Japan, has a lot of road walking, and many parts of it are in bad disrepair. It’s not a trail I would recommend for a good introduction to mountain in Japan. It’s more of a cultural walk, passing through many towns. For long distance trail information in Japan, I’d say talk to Ted Taylor, who has done more long distance walks in Japan than anyone else, and is in the Facebook group “Hiking In Japan”.
Getting food supplies along the way is mostly no problem, because you have villages and town down in most valleys, and if no towns, then often there is access to nearby towns and cities via bus. Hitchhiking isn’t common in Japan, but is quite easy to do, and on the whole very safe compared to other countries. People are usually delighted to get a chance to meet foreigners, and many of them can speak rudimentary English. You can get most of your food at convenience stores like 7-Eleven, Lawson, or Family Mart, and very healthy and fresh supplies at that, but be prepared to pay quite a lot of money there. Your best bet is to get to super markets or department store basements (where there are always food markets), where prices are reasonable.
As to maps, there is very little in English. That’s one major problem in Japan for travelers. I would strongly suggest, as Rick mentioned, joining the Facebook group “Hiking In Japan”. There are a lot of seasoned hikers there who know the mountains in Japan well, including the leader Wes Lang (who has a website called “Hiking In Japan”: https://japanhike.wordpress.com and is probably the most knowledgeable English-speaking person in the world on trails and hiking in Japan), and me, the co-administrator. Just sign up and I’ll let you in.
You might also want to try Yamareco ( https://yamareco.co.jp/en/which is a hiking trip planning site, but unfortunately the English support is not very good. Here is their main page: https://www.yamareco.com
For detailed topographic maps of all Japan, that you can download and print for free, check out the Japanese GSI: http://maps.gsi.go.jp/#8/36.388124/138.941345/&base=std&ls=std&disp=1&vs=c1j0l0u0t0z0r0f0
Here is an explanation of how to use it: https://shikokuhiking.wordpress.com/topographic-maps-apps-japan/
You can also get good, paper maps at almost any bookstore in Japan, specifically made for hikers. Just look for the series “Yama to Kogen Chizu” (Mountain and Highland Maps, 山と高原地図), published by Shobunsha (昭文社), at 1:50,000 scale. These are the most used hiking maps in Japan, though they only cover the most popular routes, and not the less traveled routes in between.
That’s just basic information. I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. Just let me know what else you need to know. And be sure to join Hiking In Japan and post questions there, too. The community is really friendly and helpful.
