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Climbing in Japan 23-Nov-2004 At 3:57:29 PM animaland

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...Japan is an amazing place to climb! ...now it ain't got anything like Arapiles but most places don't. I've
been quite a few times.

If I were an Ozzie going to Japan though (as I have been) I'd be climbing the alps, not the rocks
(assuming alps are your thing). Fuji is climbable any time of year - if you know what you're doing. Sure,
the official period is centred arund July/August, but you don't *have* to climb then. Winter ascents are a
risky venture... b/c Fuji stands in isolation the summit winds can be pretty serious in winter on the clear
days when you'd most want to climb... i.e. a couple of hundred km's an hour - enough to blow you off the
mountain and break your neck (yes, somebody I climed with lost his partner that way on one trip - its not
a joke climbing Fuji in winter). Summit temps' in winter are around -20 deg C. This mountain sees tens of
thousands climbing in a regular stream during summer though.

Anyway, I have a couple of web pages about Japan online here:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~aland/aboutAnimaland.html

There are a few mountaineering trips described in there. The only real "rock" I've climbed there that wasn't
mountain rock was in a Tokyo gym though so I ain't exactly an expert on that side of climbing in Japan.
There is rock on Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku. I've never been to Hokkaido :-( There is rock on the
islands off the south of Kyushu also but the weather is pretty tropical in summer - and there's much more
interesting things to do than go rock climbing - however much you love it ;-)

Alan.