The best early summer hikes in Japan: snow-free May and June

Japan has some great hikes in the Japanese Alps, and the summer hiking season for these 3000m+ peaks generally kicks off in mid-July (depending on the mountain) each year. For those that might be visiting Japan in May or June you might be left wondering, what should I climb? Unfortunately since the tallest peaks will still have a decent amount of snow on them, I can't really recommend hiking them unless you have the proper gear and experience. Luckily Japan has thousands of mountains so there are still plenty more you can enjoy, regardless of the season. There are way more mountains you can hike than the ones I specifically listed on this page, but I specifically tried to pick ones that I think have the best views, and get closest to providing that "wow" factor that you might get out of an Alps hike. If you wanted to jump to a specific mountain: I've made sure that all the mountains on this list are hikeable in June. In some cases, some of them some of them I've marked as being…