Name: Climbing Mt Kinpu: One of Japan's 100 Most Famous Mountains ⛰️ Life in Japan EP 314
Uploaded: 2025-06-17T14:43:14.000Z
Duration: 17 min 52 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of degree

Japan isn't just Tokyo and Sushi, Samurai and Kanji.

At its heart, Japan is wild with a breathtaking geography that would take you a lifetime to explore.

Today me and two good friends are going deep into the heart of Japan's vineyard country,

Yamanashi Prefecture, scaling up a ridge to one of Japan's most famous mountains.

Maybe you've never heard of Mount Kinpu, I never had before this trip, but if you watch this video to the end, you will know why this is one of the most beautiful places in all of Japan.

Nagano Prefecture stretches off away to the north, where we drove well down the dirt road to find parking. Even though we are early, we still haven't beat the other hikers here. Japan has a vibrant hiking culture to match its wondrous landscape, and it seems like everyone has come out today to experience it. Okay, we're here. It's about seven o'clock in the morning. We're going to hit the bathroom and go up, and it's cold here. It's about 10 degrees celsius.

From here, we'll go through the Asahi mountain pass, and pass through the Asahi mountain pass, and then we'll pass through the Kawara in the mountains. Mount Kinpu, 2,599 meters, Japan's most famous mountain. Wow, I can't wait. Let's go. We're heading up into the unknown, but will we find what we're hoping to see? Find out as we explore this wild corner of Japan.

So, several years ago, we hiked Japan's deepest gorge, and right when we were about to start,

Kazu was like, this year, five people have died on this trail. We're like, what? What did you bring us to, Kazu? Okay, here we go. This is it, right? It goes up fast. Holy cow. Yeah. Last year, five people died. Last year, five people died on this. Thanks for bringing me here, Kazu.

This year, only one person died. Okay, we're gonna keep it that way.

Turned out to be one of the most amazing hikes, probably the most amazing hike I've ever done.

If you haven't seen that video, you should certainly check that out. But today, it's time for a new adventure here, in a very beautiful place here. This will be exciting. This is pretty already. Yeah, I have a feeling that this probably hasn't been that long since the snow melted from here. Soon, we began climbing, and climbing, and climbing. The way was full of rocks and boulders, and each step had to be calculated for how you would proceed. We were working hard to climb, sucking in huge amounts of that crisp, cool mountain air. But as we began to summit the ridge, it rewarded us with some incredible views. To the top of the ridge.

We just climbed to the top of this ridge, and enjoying the view gives me a chance to catch my breath too. That is the second highest mountain in Japan. Seeing the southern alps of Japan stretched before us was a sight to behold. Japan's second tallest mountain.

Well, the nature paparazzi, are you ready?

Ready for photos. Yes. Soon, we were descending into Asahi Pass. The trail follows the mountain ridgeline, which we thought would perhaps make it a little less demanding, but that was certainly not the case. Here's the pile of rocks that they used to put the rocks all over the mountain. It's chilly out, but hiking through here, going up and down, makes you plenty warm.

Whoa, our first view of Fuji on the trail.

Oh, we have some rocks for real here. Look at this.

We're at the top, looks like. Oh, we're at the top? We're at the one top. Yeah! I think. Let's go.

We're almost at the peak of our first mountain. Oh, and it looks awesome already. Look at that.

Look at the view from up here. It just goes on and on and on. Oh, Fuji-san. And the leaves up here, look it, they're just budding right now. It's June and the leaves are just starting to bud up here. That's how high we are. The higher up we got, the more we could see our surroundings, and we were only getting started. Actually, we're not to the top yet, are we? I'm not sure I've ever been up such a long mountain road that just went winding up the mountain so far and so long.

Glad I don't get car sick because, man, it's hard to make a trip like this happen. In fact, we've been planning this for a couple of years, I think, and it's just for all of us to get the same day off to have good weather and everything to come together. It almost feels impossible to plan while you're doing it, but once you get out here, it is so good because Japan is so beautiful and this is all just in our backyard here. And you get out and it just really recharges the batteries even though you get really tired doing it. It's great for the mind, body, soul, great for the spirit, great. Oh, this is our first mountain. The first official top of the mountain, right? Yes! It was time to celebrate with a flight of the drone. I flew in the direction we would go down Mount Asahi, up the trail towards Mount Tetsuzan, and then Mount Gingpu.

Looking north, you can see the jagged rock formations of the mountains of Nagano.

Looking south, you can see Mount Fuji providing a backdrop for Mount Asahi.

Anywhere you looked, it was gorgeous and it was only going to get better.

My wife Ruth says that I'm not really that funny, so now I get to be not funny in Japanese as well as English. But what wasn't funny was the descent.

We made our way down the peak of Mount Asahi and started the long climb up the ridge towards

Mount Tetsuzan or the Iron Mountain and this is where the views would really start to open up.

Oh, we've been hiking a good long time now and I think we're about to make it to the next peak or at least the next hill. It's up and down, up and down. Lots of boulders. You have to watch your step. Yes, here's a nice hiroi tokoro.

There's where we're going here soon, right up there.

Mount Fuji right over here. You can still see it, some veins of snow there.

How about those white fields down there? Yeah, and these outcroppings of rock are amazing.

While it was only around 10 a.m, we felt like it should be lunchtime already as we left Tokyo at 4 30 in the morning. So for now, we had a snack and a rest before tackling the final leg of the trail up to the summit of Mount Kimpu. That's fun to say, Mount Kimpu.

This is more bionic than this box, isn't it? It really does.

What an interesting view. It's very symmetrical from this side.

There's our final destination. This is such a unique view. On this ridge up the top, we're above the trees. You just look down in the valleys, all kinds of jagged peaks, huge mountain peaks with snow off in the distance. And the peak in front of us, this ridge here, it's just super picturesque. Very unique. I love being above the tree line. And of course, you can't forget Mount Fuji standing tall.

At last, we came to the final boulder strewn ascent to the peak of Mount Kimpu, one of Japan's 100 most famous mountains.

Look at these wild flowers. They're not yellow, they're almost green. That's amazing.

Boy, in the top here, it's a lot of stones and boulders to be navigating.

Look at that lake that you saw down there, remember? The dam?

Oh, yes. That's the dam way down there. Yeah, so we came up straight from that valley down there.

I've never seen Mount Fuji like this before.

Those mountains, they just, each peak gets taller and taller coming up this ridge all the way up to here. Wow. Look in any direction, the scene was breathtaking and majestic. Enjoy this montage of some of the best scenes from one of Japan's most beautiful places.

And so begins the return journey. The same path, different view.

What was up is now down and what was down was up. It's just like a bed of beautiful green.

Yes, I've got a low pine. Look at the pine. It's beautiful.

What an interesting ground cover. I know it's beautiful.

Because of flying the drone, I had gotten a little behind, but now we were ready to take in one last view before what would turn out to be quite a challenging return.

I don't get tired of these views up on the ridges here. They're just amazing.

You forget all the work of coming up, at least I do, until you have to go back down.

Now heading down, everything would get taller as we went lower.

Look here, moss burger. I just love these kinds of forests with these little, they look like birch trees. I'm not sure if that's what they are.

Oh, it feels like we're heading back up. Altogether, the hike gained about 400 meters, but several hundred meters were lost and the trail was too short.

I'm not sure if that's what they are. I think it's a little bit too steep.

I'm not sure if that's what they are. I'm not sure if that's what they are.

Altogether, the hike gained about 400 meters, but several hundred meters were lost and gained along the way, making the trek that much more tiresome on the way back.

Finding your footing seems easier on the way up, but harder on the heart.

This is a huge climb here. Oh, I'm taking a little break on the way.

We were so blessed that the whole morning was clear, offering vistas not usually seen in June.

Oh, here we are, at the top of this beast.

After summiting Mount Asahi for the second time, we saw a rescue helicopter at the top of this beast.

After summiting Mount Asahi for the second time, we saw a rescue helicopter circling Mount Kimpu.

Some unfortunate hiker had fallen and got hurt, and we watched as the hiker was pulled up into the helicopter and flew off to a hospital some 30-odd kilometers away.

Scenes like this remind you of how remote you are and how truly wild Japan can be.

We would be sure to be extra careful on the last bit of stretch, especially now that our legs are tired.

In this last little stretch, there's all kinds of trees that have fallen over.

It looks like they get so big, but because the soil is so rocky, they can't hang on and then they fall over. There's a lot of trees falling over here.

Is it possible they had some huge typhoon or something that came through and just, or a fire or something?

Just goes to show you can't grow taller than your roots can support you.

Look at the roots here. They were so shallow, but it was a huge tree.

The trail seemed to go on and on with no end in sight until finally the glorious moment came.

I think I hear the parking lot. Oh, I see it. Such a good feeling to finish well.

If you like this adventure, you're really going to like this next one.

Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time on Life in Japan.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Climbing Mt Kinpu: One of Japan's 100 Most Famous Mountains ⛰️ Life in Japan EP 314

stretch

tackle

navigate

unique