There’s a report in the Mainichi entitled Booming popularity doubles accident rate at Tokyo’s Mt. Takao, which tells that “there were 43 reported accidents on the mountain last year, almost double the average number from each year from 2004 to 2006.”
Those who go unprepared come in for a roasting from Kenichiro Maruyama, head of the Takao Police Station’s Alpine Rescue Taskforce who says, “OK, so it’s only a small mountain, but it’s a mountain nonetheless. Not thinking enough about what’s needed for mountain climbing is inviting trouble.”
Quite so.
Police are urging anybody visiting Mt. Takao to take appropriate preparations beforehand, including having a plan on how to get down the mountain, preparing sufficient equipment such as water, rain gear and flashlights, understand that mobile phones won’t always work in the area and make reports on planned hikes on Mt. Takao before setting off.
To further underline this point about lack of preparedness, the report states that “many accidents are reported among […] women going to the mountain while wearing high-heeled shoes.”
A group of Japanese mountaineers setting out on an expedition, yesterday
Haha, that reminds me about a time when a Japanese ex and I went to Volcanoes National Park on Hawaii. There’s a point at which you can walk about three miles out along the shore to see a live volcano. My ex was wearing heels at the time but made the hike anyway. I ended up having to carry her the last two miles back to the tour bus, though. *sigh*
i went to a matsuri once where it had been raining on and off all day. the ground was covered in two inches of mud and everything was dirty. of course, the kawaii girls showed up in open-toed stilettoes. it’s not mountain climbing related but just as impractical. i have seen girls mountain climbing in heels, though. i don’t get it, but my husband says girls can’t bear the idea of wearing practical but less stylish shoes. i also get amused by girls who wear shorts and skimpy clothes through the winter. japan is not jamaica! put on a jacket!
I spent Christmas day a few years back just hiking around the ‘Hollywood’ sign in L.A. The park can get hilly and the trails really *are* trails in parts.
But there they were - a latino family - grandmother, mother with infant being held to chest, father, other young child, walking these trails. The mother and grandmother in heels and the kid in plastic sandals. On trails. Hiking trails. Hilly, narrow hiking trails.
My friend and I ended up feeling obligated to quietly follow this family around the hills for the rest of the morning ’cause we were the only ones in proper attire and with basic equipment. We were genuinely nervous that one of the family members was going to slip or slide off a trail and rescue people would have to come in. Of course, we were the only ones with a map, proper foot attire and some medical training… .
Whistler Mountain and the local mountains a bus ride away here in Vancouver also have their overly-fair share of Japanese and Korean language students snowboarding or hiking out of bounds and having to be rescued.
Last week Whistler Rescue finally found the body of a 25-year-old Japanese snowboarder who’d gone off alone and out of bounds. She hadn’t told anyone where she was going and it was three days before her host family called her language school with concerns.
When I was still in Quebec, rangers were answering more and more emergency calls from totally-unprepared European tourists who’d gone into the woods, not realizing that, you know, Canada’s kinda big and, therefore, so are the forests.
There’s some brouhaha about charging hikers and skiers for rescues - some are thinking that that knowledge will just mean lost people will get even more lost trying to find a way out to avoid rescue charges and others are questioning why tax payers should have to pay for the costs of people who actively make the stupid decision to leave protected areas.
Wonder what people around Mount Takao think about the issue… .
LoL! Stylish too the bitter end.
Yeah, you know, I remember driving around Beppu when I was 10, and looking at the honeymooning couples . . . and all the women in heels. Recently, while walking around and around and around Kyoto, I thought to myself that I wished I were wearing more “feminine” shoes, then thought, “Who am I kidding? I couldn’t clomp clomp around in heels like that and survive till the end of the day.” And the thing is, so many girls look like they are in pain as they walk. I don’t get it. This is a part of me that will remain fundamentally northern Californian.
This is more proof that men are smarter than women.
I recall shaking my head in amazement at the women in high heels trying to walk up the 785 steps to the main shrine building at Kompira-san. I don’t know if they ever made it as they were moving too slowly for me to stick around and watch.
We see lots of young girls (and some boys) with stylish shoes and cloths sitting on the ground in Shibuya or Harajuku. They say they do so because they are tired.