As remarked in the previous post, it took a long time for foreigners to recover their enthusiasm for the Japanese mountains. When they did, new highways and Shinkansen routes may have played a part: in the late 1980s and 1990s, the Japan Alps started to come within the regular weekend range of big city dwellers for the first time.
In 1988, at long last, a new English-language guidebook came out. This was Paul Hunt’s Hiking in Japan. Hunt was well qualified to write on the mountains, having graduated in geology and later working as a meteorologist. He came to Japan in 1978 to work with a team exploring for oil in the Japan Sea (following in the prospecting footsteps of Benjamin Smith Lyman). In the introduction to his book, Hunt mentions several mountain-related associations including the JAC, the Friends of the Earth, and the International Adventure Club.
The International Adventure Club, Hunt says, is "a group of foreigners and Japanese who organize hiking, rock climbing, and skiing trips out of Tokyo. They have monthly meetings in Tokyo and issue a newsletter. They can be contacted through Dave Parry or Yuko Nakano…."
In Early Heisei or thereabouts, in the early 1990s, a number of foreign climbers must have phoned Dave or Yuko – indeed, I was one of them. This small group had a smattering of experience in the European Alps and we wanted to try out some routes in the Japan Alps – somehow we had got to hear about Takidani and Kita-dake Buttress. In my case, it was a photo in Nihon Tozan Taikei, volume 7, that set me going …
The next step was suggested by a Japanese friend who had recently joined us. His idea was for our alpine group to join the Japan Workers’ Alpine Federation (Rōsan, or the Nihon Kinrōsha Sangakurenmei). This we did, in early 1992, becoming one of about 70 clubs in the Shinjuku bloc, and after that we called ourselves – or at least I did – the Alpine Workmen.
From that time onwards, our club calendar was probably little different from any other Rōsan club: November: winter skills refreshment climb on Mt Fuji; from January, yama-skiing, March: snow training at Tanigawa-dake, perhaps with a climb of Kuro-one; Golden Week: gasshuku on skis, eg Tsurugi-dake, Genjirō-one; June, rock-climbing and sawa-nobori, August; alpine climbing gasshuku, perhaps on Tsurugi D-Face … and so on.
A sociologist might have had an interesting time with us. Our founder president was rising up the ranks of a well-known machinery maker, our secretary helped to run an American bank’s credit card scheme, while other members worked for MITI, universities, a law firm, an international food company, an oil company, and so on. If there was one common theme, it might just be that most of us came originally from the countryside (Shikoku, Oxford, Christchurch NZ etc). But even that wasn’t true for everybody – one member came from New York, and her father had helped to build the Apollo Lunar Module at Grumman Aerospace.
I used to think of us as being part of the “present”. Of course, that can’t be true any longer. Although the IAC itself has successor organisations in both the Kanto and Kansai, our own alpine association ceased to exist decades ago. So we are in every sense history, just like the Mountain Goats of Kobe, about whom we knew nothing at that time.
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| Paul Hunt atop Shiomi-dake (3,046.9 metres). Illustration from Paul Hunt's Hiking in Japan. |
In 1988, at long last, a new English-language guidebook came out. This was Paul Hunt’s Hiking in Japan. Hunt was well qualified to write on the mountains, having graduated in geology and later working as a meteorologist. He came to Japan in 1978 to work with a team exploring for oil in the Japan Sea (following in the prospecting footsteps of Benjamin Smith Lyman). In the introduction to his book, Hunt mentions several mountain-related associations including the JAC, the Friends of the Earth, and the International Adventure Club.
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| The guidebook that launched a thousand mountain trips ... |
The International Adventure Club, Hunt says, is "a group of foreigners and Japanese who organize hiking, rock climbing, and skiing trips out of Tokyo. They have monthly meetings in Tokyo and issue a newsletter. They can be contacted through Dave Parry or Yuko Nakano…."
In Early Heisei or thereabouts, in the early 1990s, a number of foreign climbers must have phoned Dave or Yuko – indeed, I was one of them. This small group had a smattering of experience in the European Alps and we wanted to try out some routes in the Japan Alps – somehow we had got to hear about Takidani and Kita-dake Buttress. In my case, it was a photo in Nihon Tozan Taikei, volume 7, that set me going …
 |
| Alpine Workman (and civil servant) inspects the Dome in Takidani. |
The next step was suggested by a Japanese friend who had recently joined us. His idea was for our alpine group to join the Japan Workers’ Alpine Federation (Rōsan, or the Nihon Kinrōsha Sangakurenmei). This we did, in early 1992, becoming one of about 70 clubs in the Shinjuku bloc, and after that we called ourselves – or at least I did – the Alpine Workmen.
 |
| Alpine Workman (and industrial engineer) on Tsurugi-dake, Genjiro Ridge. |
From that time onwards, our club calendar was probably little different from any other Rōsan club: November: winter skills refreshment climb on Mt Fuji; from January, yama-skiing, March: snow training at Tanigawa-dake, perhaps with a climb of Kuro-one; Golden Week: gasshuku on skis, eg Tsurugi-dake, Genjirō-one; June, rock-climbing and sawa-nobori, August; alpine climbing gasshuku, perhaps on Tsurugi D-Face … and so on.
 |
| Alpine Workmen taking liquid refreshment in Akagi-sawa. |
A sociologist might have had an interesting time with us. Our founder president was rising up the ranks of a well-known machinery maker, our secretary helped to run an American bank’s credit card scheme, while other members worked for MITI, universities, a law firm, an international food company, an oil company, and so on. If there was one common theme, it might just be that most of us came originally from the countryside (Shikoku, Oxford, Christchurch NZ etc). But even that wasn’t true for everybody – one member came from New York, and her father had helped to build the Apollo Lunar Module at Grumman Aerospace.
I used to think of us as being part of the “present”. Of course, that can’t be true any longer. Although the IAC itself has successor organisations in both the Kanto and Kansai, our own alpine association ceased to exist decades ago. So we are in every sense history, just like the Mountain Goats of Kobe, about whom we knew nothing at that time.
So what is going on right now?
(To be continued)
1 comment:
Thanks, PH, for sharing this trip down memory lane. Life in Tokyo during the pre-internet early 1990s must have felt like a completely different world. These days, it’s so easy to connect with countless outdoor groups online, but I can’t help thinking that the bonds formed back then were deeper and more enduring. Given the way you’ve described the diverse membership of the Alpine Workmen, I suspect that was certainly the case for you.
As for Paul Hunt, after releasing the second edition of Hiking in Japan nearly a decade later, he seems to have quietly faded from view – but not before passing on his love of the Japanese Alps to many of us, myself included.
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