Bukhansan National Park

In my continuing efforts to train my body for the elevation challenge that Mt. Fuji will present to me, I move from a leisurely waterfall hike to a more vertical hike through Bukhansan National Park in Seoul, South Korea. Our goal was to reach the summit of Bukhansan, the main mountain, standing at around 800m […]

Gojo Falls

Just 30 minutes or so outside of our fair city of Kawagoe rests a beautifully forested area near Chichibu, which I am slowly coming to adore. Mountains, rivers, and meadows dominate the landscape, and it was in this setting that my wife discovered a short hike to Gojo Falls. Easing me into an eventual hike […]

Kencho-ji Temple

During my first month in Japan, a colleague of mine offered to take us to Kamakura, the Kyoto of the East. Kamakura is littered with all sorts of historical and cultural goodies, the most famous of which is the giant Buddha. While visiting, I did not see the big man himself, but did manage to […]

My First Skiing Experience: Arizona Snowbowl

Having grown up in sunny South Florida, there weren’t too many opportunities to go skiing in the winter (barring water skiing, that is). I wasn’t able to see snow until I ventured to China in my mid-twenties and I have yet to make a snowman. With that context in mind, I ventured up to Arizona […]

Makeshift Memorial

I walk along the uncleared path of nothingness and rocks, so many rocks of varying size, powdered with snow and ice on the hardened dirt that somehow still finds a way to thaw into dust on my boots. I walk past the painted steel that separates the only park in town, which really isn’t a […]

Morning Mountain Trek

The first morning of the lunar new year (Tsagaan Sar) is an important one for men. The tradition is that men will climb a mountain, if there is one nearby, before the sunrise to capture the energy from the sun. It’s supposed to bring them good things for the coming year, and for the superstitious, they’ll […]