What a 4-day trek in Japan’s Northern Alps with a 75-year-old Japanese climber taught me

“I’m glad you are here and did not choose to go climb Mount Fuji,” a retired engineer from Hiroshima told us on our second day in the Northern Alps.

My cousin, sister, and I were in Japan on a multi-day trek, hoping to scale four peaks including Japan’s fifth-highest mountain, Yarigatake (3,180m).

Hastily organised after our initial plans to climb mountains in India and China fell apart, it was the first time three of us travelled together, thanks to supportive parents and spouses who stepped up to take care of our young children while we were gone.

The only thing we had planned this trip was accommodation for the first two nights. Everything else we would decide on the go, sometimes on the same day.

We confirmed our route in a kissaten, with my Japanese-speaking cousin doing the heavy lifting, navigating websites and calling hotlines to book various mountain huts.