Comparison with Yamanashi of a outdoor climbing mecca in Japan
Yamanashi prefecture is located in the next to Tokyo, as you know, so this prefecture is the climbing mecca of Japan, thanks to the large climbing population and the accumulation of intelligence in climbing... The legendary climber in Japanese climbing history, live in near Tokyo, where traveling to the crags are easy.... Yuji is in Iruma, in Saitama prefecture but it is easy access to Ogawayama where people say, it is the "camp4 of Japan". (The camp 4 is in Yosemite, the world's climbing mecca)
Not many climber does not chose to live in Yamanashi because the jobs are the problem. It's not the big city, it is only a small town so income will be substancially low and jobs are hard to get... so most people chose to climb in a gym in weekdays and go outdoor climbing to Yamanashi, or such, on weekends. That is the typical life style of Japanese climbers.
But I was happen to be in Yamanashi by accident. So that was the reason of climbing in Yamanashi to me.
Comparing Fukuoka with Yamanashi, Yamanashi has a large population of climbers for its population, and is the destination for the inflow of serious climbers, not the outflow side. Fukuoka is not at all best location for climbers. (which made me very sad, of course since I was already a climber when I moved to Fukuoka... I was to switch my emphasis on Yoga rather than climbing when I moved here first... on the contrary I was made to focus on... to save my life.)
There is no other prefecture like Yamanashi. Although many climbers come to Nagano, it seems that Hokuto City in Yamanashi is generally considered the best location for climbers. (Iruma, where Yuji is located, is also close to Okutama, but there are too many areas in Okutama that are off-limits to climbers.)
Outdoor rocks (crags)
So, when I moved to Yamanashi, we gave up the ballet class I took for about 20 years including in the U.S. and started to climb, alpine and ice.
And when I move to Fukuoka, I did not expect at all about the cragging in Fukuoka.
That's why I looked for a good climbing gym, but the result was disappointing.
So the next year, one of the senior member of the Yamanashi alpine club, actually he was 3 year younger than me, but he started climbing before I started so should be more knowledgeable, I suppose, ...we started climbing together. It was purely convenient to him since I was done with my market research in climbing on Fukuoka, for one year previously.
So our activities as two members of Yamanashi Alpine Club, started. I mean, we are NOT the couple.
Actually I was never close to him before I come to Fukuoka, since he was the one considered "we had to watch him or he will die since he thinks death -wishing posture is cool" kind of person.
so for me it was two kind of stress; stress of going to unknown crag without bolt information and the stress to protect myself with less understanding climber who thinks he is a better climber because of the grade.
At first, we toured all the major crags in Kyushu in 2 years. We have visited almost all the major crags in Kyusyu, so I feel that I have a good grasp of the crags.
As a result of this tour, I found out why lead climbing is not popular in Kyushu.
The bolts were so shabby and were 40 years old cut anchors. Older than what we had in Yamanashi. They looked like they were 40 years old, not 20 years old. (https://allnevery.blogspot.com/2021/04/blog-post_29.html)
Also outdoor climbing were not properly taught.
The parade of strange anchors I had never seen before was exactly what someone once described as "the exhibition of life or death". The kind of anchors I only knew in the text books.
I had no idea how to use the funny anchors like this, which I had never seen in Yamanashi before. So I asked to my climbing mentor in Nagano(it's next to Yamanashi so it is about the same in this case) every time I see unfamiliar anchors.
Every time I asked, he said, "Add one more for back-up!"
Not just him, I got a lot of advice from the overseas, from as far away as the Czech Republic, and from as far away as the UIAA Secretary General...
I wondered if these were the demo anchors that I had heard so much about... as a bad examples of climbing "NOT to do!"
I had read about Do's and Don'ts in text books! Am I experiencing what I had read and heard about?
It is too scary to fall.
