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Seeking info about long distance hiking in Japan


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Home Forums Campfire Trip Planning Seeking info about long distance hiking in Japan

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  • #3500453
    Amy Lauterbach
    BPL Member

    @drongobird

    Locale: San Francisco Bay Area

    James and I are planning our next long walk. For years we’ve had a strong desire to take a long hike in Japan but in prior searches we were unable to locate gpx tracks or enough information in English.

    We prefer hikes of about 700-1200 kilometers. We wild-camp, so don’t need infrastructure such as shelters and inns. We have both travelled in Japan on business and have a bit of a feel for language and culture. We aren’t going to Japan for wilderness and expect it to be more like hiking in Europe than in north American Wilderness areas. We prefer footpaths and don’t mind country lanes, but we are not interested in a walk that is primarily on paved roads.

    Japan has a network of long trails, described here; there’s a map at the bottom of the page:
    https://www.traildino.com/trace/continents-Asia/countries-Japan

    All we really require is a gpx track of a long route. Ideally we’d like advice about which of the long routes might best suit us. We are comfortable figuring out the rest of the logistics on our own.

    Sadly, we have not found a source of gpx tracks for the network of nature trails shown on the traildino page; they may well exist but nearly all of the information we see referenced is in Japanese.

    We have found one high quality trip report with a gpx track of somebody who hiked 1000 km on the Tokai Nature Trail:
    http://tokaishizenhodoguide.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-rough-guide-to-walking-tokai-shizen.html

    So we are now reaching out to our pals at BPL forums for advice. Has anybody taken a long walk there – not just a week in one mountain range, but a month or more? Any advice from the few BPL contributors who live in Japan? (I’ll send a message directly to Miguel as he has not been active on the forums for a while).

    If we don’t find a gpx file for another trail of ~700-1500 km, then we are about ready to make a plan to hike the Tokai Nature Trail using the information in that one trip report.

    We appreciate any advice about which trails are viable and assistance in finding sources of gpx tracks.

    . Amy (and James too)

    #3500466
    Michael
    BPL Member

    @tjayblues

    Maybe a bit of help, at the very least a good read. Liz Thomas Blog …

    http://www.eathomas.com/2013/11/17/tokaido1/

    #3500471
    Rick M
    BPL Member

    @yamaguy

    Hi Amy, lived in Tokyo 26yrs. No contiguous long trails that meet your requirements, especially if you want to minimize pavement. Most walking paths are within the mountainous national parks where wild camping is not allowed. As for gps mapping, your best bet in English interface is the JapanAlpsMap by Yamareco. It let’s you rent offline government topo maps.  But these are not the detailed trekking maps with walking times, water sources, terrain hazards, viewpoints etc, that you would have with Japanese only Yamatokogen series. Note that in either case most terrain, village, points of interest and landmark names will still be in Japanese. Best source for local advise in English is the Hiking in Japan Facebook group.

    #3500476
    Amy Lauterbach
    BPL Member

    @drongobird

    Locale: San Francisco Bay Area

    Thanks to M and Rick. That gives us things to read this evening as we continue our quest. Amy

    #3500490
    Rick M
    BPL Member

    @yamaguy

    Another very important thing to consider that makes long uninterrupted treks virtually impossible here is weather. Way more 2-4″ per hour rainfalls in the prime Summer trekking season of mid July thru October than you probably have endured in your other treks. And that is in addition to the several typhoons that make landfall during this period. These downpours also make the trails in high mountain areas quite vulnerable to landslips and the valleys to flooding. And you will want to be in the high mountains above 2000m due to the Summer heat and humidity, 35C+ @75-80%, at lower altitudes!

     

    #3500694
    Miguel Arboleda
    BPL Member

    @butuki

    Locale: Kanto Plain, Japan

    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.

     

    #3500767
    Amy Lauterbach
    BPL Member

    @drongobird

    Locale: San Francisco Bay Area

    Much thanks for the advice. Per the suggestion, I will turn to the Hiking in Japan Facebook page for more help.

    Miguel – I’m glad to hear you returned to the Pyrenees with a fiancee! That is exciting for both of you.

    We had not previously found Liz Snorkle Thomas’ report, and that confirmed some of the things Tom said in his post about the Tokai Nature Trail. In particular, her comment that the trail tread is comparable to Vermont’s Long Trail is very helpful since we have hiked that trail.

    James and I will continue to consider our goals. We are attracted to Japan because of the culture there and don’t feel a need to see the best scenery the country has to offer. So we wouldn’t rule out the Tokai Nature Trail based on the quality of the scenery. Also, since it is at low elevation (all below 1500 meters I believe) we would probably go in the spring; the Australian hiker started his trip on April 15th. Hopefully that would beat the summer heat, provide good displays of flowers and territorial bird song.

    Thanks very much. It’s nice to have a community of people out there who provide this kind of assistance. Amy (and James too)

    #3517329
    Amy Lauterbach
    BPL Member

    @drongobird

    Locale: San Francisco Bay Area

    [posting the same info at Hiking in Japan Facebook page]

    We have made our plan! Thanks especially to Rick and Miguel for their advice.

    We plan to walk a route that is based on the Tokai Nature Trail, from Osaka to Tokyo, this coming spring.

    Our route planning information is in this CalTopo map. Our planned route is about 900 km.

    We started with the gpx track that Nomadic Tom published. Then we used google Earth, CalTopo various map layers, and the very useful Japan Alps Hiking Map (iOS version) to modify and refine the route. We don’t have an “official” Tokai Nature Trail gpx line, but we think we have a line that will be suitable, and we will adapt on the ground as we go.

    We are looking forward to spending time in Japanese villages and towns, and crossing through the forested mountains between those towns.

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