2020 Started with a global pandemic and then during the spring of last year the area we call home (the southern region of the Chubusangaku National Park) started getting lots of small earthquakes. There were a few decent-sized ones that actually set of the early warning system and sent us all under the dining table to shelter many times.
The situation with COVID-19 sent the world into lockdown and in Japan, we were asked to stay home and our little tourism-based community got really quiet. With schools shut down and kids home we had tons of time to enjoy as a family which was excellent apart from the earthquakes that continued to eat away at our nerves.
Before COVID-19 and the earthquakes, Hannah and I had been talking about climbing some mountains and camping as a family in 2020 but by the middle of 2020, we were almost sure that was not going to happen.
Fast forward to the fall of 2020. Our good friend Yuma approached us about helping with a promotion film project that he was producing for the Chubusangaku National Park. He asked if Hannah and I would be willing to go hike Mt. Hotaka as part of the cast in the film, which is the 3rd highest mountain in Japan. He told us the video was themed “challenge” and would help introduce this beautiful place to internationals looking to enjoy something other than Tokyo and Kyoto’s typical sights.
We were pretty nervous about going into the mountains because of the earthquakes and for Hannah and me to go hike we had to leave our kids at home which was a huge emotional challenge and logistical challenge in itself because 3 of them were in public school. A good friend of ours Fukiko started a forest preschool & daycare last year and so we were able to have her stay with our kids at our house while we went away for 3 days to hike and film for this promo video that we felt was pretty appropriately themed “challenge”.
So in early October of 2020, we set out to hike Mt. Hotaka with Yuma and Satoshi the videographer.
We felt like we were given the most amazing gift to be invited to help with this project and to be able to hike in the Japanese Alps with my wife was like a dream come true.
At the beginning of this month, we were also asked to help with the translation and narration of the film and that was also a very meaningful process for us. The script was written by Yuma and Hannah translated it into English and then narrated it, so the voice in the film is Hannahs.
There is so much more I could share and many fun details but I will stop here for now.
Once Japan is opened back up for international tourism, we would love to invite many people to come to enjoy the birthplace of the Japanese Alps.
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