The TV program “Great Traverse 3: Japan’s Three Hundred Famous Mountains in a Single Stroke” is interesting!

＜prologue＞

I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.

So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.

It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.

It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.

If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.

I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.

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Just recently, I was casually watching an NHK BS broadcast and came across an interesting program titled “Great Traverse 3: A Single Stroke on Three Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan”.

This is a documentary about an “adventure racer”, Mr. Yohki Tanaka, who challenges to “traverse all of the 100 most famous mountains in Japan by human power”.

The current program is the “third series,” which aims to completely traverse all of the “Three Hundred Famous Mountains” by human power, adding 100 peaks to the existing “One Hundred Famous Mountains” and “Two Hundred Famous Mountains”.

I have seen many “Hyakumeizan introduction videos” such as Kyuya Fukada’s “One Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan” and Sumie Tanaka’s “One Hundred Famous Mountains of Flowers,” but this “mountain documentary” is no less impressive than any of them.

It is far more impressive than the record of “86-year-old Yuichiro Miura’s attempt to summit Aconcagua.

１．What is a “Great Traverse”?

Traverse” is a mountain term meaning ”traversing a rock face or mountain slope. Traversing a mountain slope, scree slope, or rock wall without going straight up or down requires delicate balance and can be dangerous, especially on rock walls without terraces.

（１）The Great Traverse: One stroke on the 100 most famous mountains in Japan

The Great Traverse: Japan’s 100 Great Mountains in a Single Stroke” is an epic project launched in 2014 to complete the entire 100 most famous mountains in 210 days, without using any public transportation.

The challenge was taken up by professional adventure racer Yohki Tanaka, who started on April 1, 2014, at Mt. Miyanoura in Yakushima and climbed to the summit of Mt. Rishiri in Hokkaido on October 26 of the same year, a journey of 208 days and 11 hours, or about 7,800 km.

（２）Great Traverse 2: A Single Stroke on Two Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan

The following year, he launched the “Great Traverse 2: A Single Stroke on Two Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan”.

This was an 8,000-km journey that began on May 29, 2015 at Mount Shotsambetsu in Hokkaido and ended on Mount Mitake on December 31, 2015.

（３）Great Traverse 3: One Stroke on Three Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan

In January 2018, he launched the “Great Traverse 3: Japan’s Three Hundred Famous Mountains, Stroke by Stroke” project.

This project aimed to traverse 300 of the “Three Hundred Famous Mountains of Japan” between January 1, 2018 and 2020.

The route northward from Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture to Rishiri in Hokkaido is over 10,000 km, and the actual duration of the Great Traverse was planned to be approximately one year and six months. However, because of the need for periods of rest due to bad weather and other reasons, the project took more than two years.

The land route was by foot and skis, and the sea route was by sea kayak and backraft. Unlike previous challenges, we had to climb “winter mountains,” which required more physical strength and skills than ever before.

２．About Mr. Yohki Tanaka, an “Adventure Racer

Yohki Tanaka (1983- ) is a professional adventure racer belonging to “Team EASTWIND” and an advisor to the “Japan Long Trail Association.

At the urging of his father, who was drawn to the northern lands, his family moved to Furano, Hokkaido, when he was six years old. spending most of the year in the snow, he became immersed in cross-country skiing and continued to be active in the ski club after entering Meiji University.

After graduating from college, while pursuing a career as a physical education teacher, he encountered adventure racing and decided to redirect his life towards “adventure.

He represented Japan at the 2009 World Ski Orienteering Championships. He is currently a main member of Team EASTWIND, the only professional adventure race team in Japan.

３．Interesting program

I have knee pain, which makes mountaineering, as well as hiking and trekking in low mountains, difficult, but watching this program, I feel as if I were there to challenge myself in the “Great Traverse” that Mr. Yohki Tanaka is trying to do.

It seems to me that it must be very difficult for the NHK cameramen who are filming, as well as Mr. Yohki Tanaka himself, to carry the filming equipment up the mountain on their backs.

The film crew consisted of the following people

Tetsuya Okamoto (Director of NHK, in charge of directing interviews and filming)

Kenji Komai (Japan’s leading adventure racer, in charge of following Mr. Tanaka’s speed and filming from close-up)

Kazuya Hiraide (World-renowned mountaineer and photographer. He has won numerous awards and is in charge of aerial and close-up photography.)

Takashi Yamada (one of Japan’s leading trail runners. As an assistant, he carries a tripod, equipment, food, etc. on his back.)

However, thanks to the hard work of these staff members, we are able to experience the Great Traverse of the Three Hundred Mountains from the comfort of our own homes, which is a wonderful thing.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend you watch it.