Hyakumeizan: hiking the Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan

The 100 Famous Japanese Mountains or Nihon Hyakumeizan (日本百名山) are a list of 100 mountains picked by mountaineer Kyuya Fukada in 1964. These hundred mountains are very popular among Japanese hikers, and generally have good public transport access and well-maintained trails. I wouldn't say that these are necessarily the "100 best mountains in Japan" but for any hiker living in Japan, this is the list to check off. I climbed my first hyakumeizan a little over 4 years ago and have been steadily chipping away at them ever since, now having climbed 76/100. Climbing the hyakumeizan involves a fair amount of logistics planning, and you'll want to batch multiple peaks together in one trip for efficiency. Rather than listing the peaks as a straight list from the top of Japan to the bottom (or from highest elevation to lowest elevation) I have clustered these peaks as a practical guide of how you might hike them, taking into account my own experiences checking off the peaks so far. Note that…