From time to time I receive emails for people asking for beta due to it's scarce nature in English. I have decided that I will post some of them here, maybe one will answer your question too. Hope this helps.

Hi Eddie,
How are you doing? Sorry this message is a bit out of the blue but I stumbled across your blogspot (very good by the way!) and thought I'd try to tap you up for a bit of info if you don't mind.
I'm currently in Japan with my fiance, we're based in Ashigakubo in Chichibu and also at Tokorozawa with her parents and were hoping to get some bouldering in while we're here.
Scouring the Net has brought up Mitake & Ogawayama as decent locations but could you recommend any others? Do you know of any in the Chichibu area at all?
We're looking for stuff up to about v5 really (not sure on grades to be honest so that might be an overestimate!)

Any info you could provide would be massively appreciated.

Anyway, hope all is well with you & yours.
Keep on keeping on,

Rich



Hello Rich

First, are you driving or using the trains? If you are driving there are MANY areas with in a couple of hours. If you are using the trains then it will take about three hours and a bit of walking to visit some of those areas. There are several published and non published areas around you in Chichibu. If you are just bouldering, then you can spend several weeks at Mitsumine and have many projects. If you go to any Outdoor shop in Chichibu you can find the Japan 100 series guides books, there are four of them and they are blue. The areas that you are looking at will be in the number 2 guide. Do you have pads? If not let me know, I will see what I can arrange.

Mitake is the most popular bouldering area in Honshu. This is primarily due to it's close proximity to Tokyo. There are several nice, large boulders at Mitake. I am actually writing the first English guide book to this area right now.

Ogawayama is a MUCH better place to climb in my opinion. Several sweet boulders with tons of problems in your grade range. Speaking of grades in Japan. I think the grades in Japan are very stiff. First off the Japanese do not use the V-scale or French bouldering grades. The kyu or Sho Dan scale is used. Check out my Mountain Project page on Japan for more info on this.

My favorite place to boulder in Japan so far is the Mizugaki area. This area has MANY, MANY untapped sectors and hundreds of boulders to be cleaned and climbed. There are tons of highballs to make me salivate every time I see them.

I am not sure if you climb routes but Japan has copious wonderful areas VERY close to you most notably Futago. Again some of the areas are open to the public and some are not. This is mainly because they are still being bolted and cleaned. Let me know and I can tell you more about them if you are interested.

I hope this helps. How long are you here? Where are you from? Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.

Eddie