By GARY FALLESEN
Monday, Aug. 31
Mission: Japan 2026 team: Gary, Elaine, and Hershel.
An express train to the airport and a morning flight out of Tokyo mark the end of Mission: Japan 2026 and the start of the next mission. Japan was our 138th evangelic expedition. Sayōnara, Nihon. Watashitachiha minasan no tame ni inotte imasu.
Sunday, Aug. 30
The spearhead peak of Yarigatake. (Photo by Gary Fallesen)
I feel as if I have been this way before. Walking down the trail away from Yarigatake (Mount Yari) – in a torrential rainstorm with lightning and thunder – was like a flashback to 2010 when I descended from Mount Ararat in Turkey feeling discouraged and confused. Nothing had happened on that survey mission: weather turned our team back from high up the mountain and we had little contact with local Kurdish people on Ararat. Sixteen years later, weather turned us back from Yarigatake and we had little contact with Japanese people during this survey mission.
So, what does that mean? We pray. We wait.
It was three years before we returned to Turkey and the real – exceptional – breakthrough didn’t occur for another six years. That’s when a Kurd converted from Islam and accepted the call to work with Climbing For Christ. Now, hundreds have been led to Jesus in eastern and southeastern Turkey. Could the same thing happen in Japan? Only God knows.
It was fitting that on our last full day in Japan, the verse of the day was one of C4C’s life verses: “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps” (Proverbs 16:9, NLT). We ask our precious and powerful Guide to show us the way.
Saturday, Aug. 29
Another rainy day in Japan as we spent time in Bible study, writing, and beginning preparation for Indonesia. Hershel went to a wedding he thought he might miss when we scheduled our climb in the Alps.
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Friday, Aug. 28
Clouds and rain sent us off Yarigatake and out of Chubusangaku National Park. (Photos by Gary Fallesen)
We hiked the final couple of miles on the Yarigatake trail and returned to the bus terminal in Kamikochi where we were told we could catch a bus but there was a delay. An accident involving a truck and a mini-van occurred in one of the tunnels on the only road into and out of this national park and there was no telling how long it would take to clear the road.
We boarded and rode to another terminal where the wait was more than three hours. Then we crawled along the roadway in bumper-to-bumper traffic all to reach a train station which took us to another train station.
Traffic backed up in one of the numerous tunnels.
The bullet train back to Tokyo was 2 ½ hours of standing at the back of the train. All the seats had been sold out. Standing room only.
When we did get to sit it was in a local train around Tokyo with thousands of our closest friends. Except no one talks to anyone; they’re all looking at their phones.
Elaine and Hershel in front of her join the Friday night rush-hour going from one train to the next in Tokyo.
We left the clean, cool (albeit rain-soaked) air in the mountains for the hot, humid air in the city. Missing the mountains already.
Thursday, Aug. 27
“The people saying ‘Kon'nichiwa’ here wouldn’t say hello back in the city,” Hershel told us.
We were early on in a 9 1/4-mile (15-kilometer) hike from the bus terminal to Yarisawa Lodge at about 6,000 feet (1,825 meters) up Yarigatake on Wednesday. The many (many!) Japanese climbers going both ways on the trail were a steady stream of greetings. Friendly folks, we thought. But single minded, it turns out. They were here to climb Yarigatake, Japan’s fifth-highest and probably second-most famous mountain. Yari, as Yarigatake is known, was all they wanted to talk about; nothing more.
Except for a guy from Wisconsin who limped down from a couple nearby summits just before dark Wednesday. He wondered what brought us here because “the Northern Alps aren’t just a random place people show up.” We explained about the ministry and he showed genuine interest. Longest conversation we’ve had so far.
Yarigatake is not to be taken lightly. Although only 10,433 feet (3,180 meters) high, it can be a bear. And there are bears - as a sign telling of a recent sighting attested. People show up with full backpacks, climbing helmets (for rockfall and possible tumbles on the chains and ladders at the top of the spear-shaped peak), and - unfortunately- umbrellas.
Hershel and Elaine, walking on sunshine on Wednesday, stroll past one of many bear bells on the Yarigatake trail, above. Below, Elaine and Hershel descending the same trail in rainy conditions today. The ups and the downs of Yarigatake. (Photos by Gary Fallesen)
We ascended in heat and sunshine on Wednesday. But as soon as we reached the Yarisawa hut, we heard rumblings of bad weather on the horizon. At dinner, three Japanese men explained how they were going to spend a rest day at Yarisawa and see about Friday’s weather.
The thunderstorms began after sunset (which is before 6:30 p.m. in these parts) and continued all night, rain drumming heavily on the metal roof over our second-floor bunkroom. This morning, Hershel said: “We should go down.” Rain and more rain were coming. Remnants of a typhoon that pounded Okinawa and Japan’s southern reaches.
We were not alone in our retreat. And there were far fewer Kon'nichiwas on descent in the torrential rain. No one was stopping to talk in these conditions. At some point, we could hear an announcement in the distance: the buses that carry climbers to and from Yarigatake wouldn’t be making any more trips today because of flooding on the mountain roads, leaving us sort of stranded.
We stopped after 7.3 miles (12K) at the last hut before the trailhead. We needed to get in out of the rain and drink something warm - coffee and noodles with soup. We decided to stay the night at the Myojin hut (named for the Buddhist temple here). We will try to get out tomorrow, still hoping for open doors to open hearts.
Tuesday, Aug. 25
We have an afternoon train – about 2 ½ hours – to the jump-off point for our hike in the Japan Alps. We are scheduled to hike Wednesday-Friday and return on Saturday to Tokyo. We will be offline so there will not be any updates on this page until we return from the mountains to the city. Pray on!
Monday, Aug. 24
We spent the day preparing – physically, mentally, and spiritually – for the next five days and our journey into the Japan Alps. We leave tomorrow (Tuesday) by train for the Northern Alps where a three-day hike is planned on Mount Yari (10,433-foot/3,180-meter Yarigatake).
This is a first: we are combining a mission with a fundraiser. In addition to an outreach survey, we are celebrating my 30th anniversary of mountaineering with our annual CLIMBATHON. We have conducted CLIMBATHON since 2011 as an additional way to raise support for the work God has us doing around the Climbing For Christ world. This year’s fundraiser should put us over $100,000 raised through CLIMBATHON. Praise the Lord! We are asking for prayer for Mission: Japan and that our members and supporters consider giving (maybe for the first time or the first time in a long time) to Climbing For Christ. CLICK on the DONATE button at the top of the page. Arigatō.
Sunday, Aug. 23
After traveling for two days, we collapsed into bed late Saturday night. Three hours later, we were jolted from our sleep by screeching phones declaring an earthquake alert. We weren’t even out of bed when the hotel swayed. Welcome to Japan.
At 2:01 a.m. the Japan Meteorological Agency sent an earthquake early warning. This is a screenshot of Elaine’s phone 11 minutes later, left. Moments after the alert, a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck northeast of Tokyo. “X” marks the spot, right. Yellow circles indicate magnitude 5 while blue (where we are) are magnitude 3.
Being new to Japanese earthquakes, we scrambled out of the room to an empty hall and made our way to the lobby where two hotel workers told us everything was OK. The earthquake was in another city. Go back to bed.
Later in the day, there were prayers at Hershel’s church for those in the wake of recent earthquakes, including today, which damaged one room on the eighth floor of the building where New Hope Tokyo meets. The pastor’s message was “When Your Faith Trembles, God Holds You Steady,” using Jeremiah 45 as the basis.
We met with the pastor after worship to discuss ministry. Hershel is one of New Hope’s oldest members, having been with the church for 27 years. New Hope and its satellites have about 500 members. Pastor Talo, an American Samoan, says a church with 50 members is a mega-church in Japan. He discussed the difficulties of finding church planters and how many churches are now pastor-less. Apparently, though, missionary activity is on the rise here.
One expat we met who is American (and half Japanese) said he felt called to Japan two years ago. “It’s a good time for planting seeds,” he said. We are praying for opportunities to sow in the week ahead.
Saturday, Aug. 22
Flights were relatively uneventful … until we landed at the wrong Tokyo airport. Thunderstorms around Haneda forced our plane to be diverted to Narita. “That’s 1.5 hours from here,” messaged Hershel, who was awaiting our arrival on the other side of Tokyo. It meant after we cleared immigration, collected our luggage, and made our way through customs, we had to go to the train station and take the Narita Express to a station near our hotel. Hershel met us at the train station near our hotel and helped lug our duffels on the half-mile walk to where we checked in for our first night back in Japan. Thank You, Lord, for safe travel.
Friday, Aug. 21
Elaine and I are flying today (and tomorrow) from C4C’s Home Office in New York to Tokyo for the start of Climbing For Christ’s 138th Evangelic Expedition (or short-term mission trip). It will be our second visit to Japan. Our previous stop there (in 2022) was a short stay to meet long-time C4C member and supporter Hershel Peppers. He invited us and guided us around. During that time, I felt God leading me to return for a longer visit to explore what opportunities we might have to serve Him there. This is our time to return.
Hershel has been making arrangements for our hiking in Japan’s Northern Alps. As he said on the eve of this journey, our prayer is “that we stay safe and be used.”
Introduction
If you want to meet “real Japanese,” the Japan Alps are the place to GO. So said ex-pat and long-time Climbing For Christ member Hershel Peppers.
Real Japanese are Buddhist (68.4 percent of the population) and/or Shintoist (24 percent of the country practices folk religions) and/or materialistic (too many to count). Hershel, who is celebrating 30 years of living and working as a teacher in Japan, likens his adopted country to his homeland – the U.S. of A. Both are lost in the idolatry of technology, work, and in love with self. In other words, centered on man not the One who created man – and certainly not the Son of Man, as Jesus liked to call Himself.
Fewer than two percent of the 122 million people in Japan are Christian.
“I now see America just as needy and perhaps harder to reach than Japan,” Hershel has told me in the past. “They (Japanese) are relatively easier to talk to about Christ than North Americans precisely because for the most part they are nonchalant about religion.”
We are GO-ing on Mission: Japan 2026 to explore places and people that might be open to hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ. We are praying for our travels, which begin Friday, to take us to the Northern Alps and Mount Yari (Yarigatake), the country’s fifth-highest mountain.
Mount Fuji. (Photo by Hershel Peppers)
“In the old days, one might say, Fuji was the summit of ambition, but the focus of modern mountaineering has now shifted to Yari-ga-take,” Kyūya Fukada wrote in his book of essays, One Hundred Mountains of Japan.
Yari was first climbed by a Buddhist monk, named Banyrū, in 1828. He carried on his back three Buddha statues representing light and life, mercy, and wisdom. He claimed these protected him as he climbed. He worshiped them at the summit of Yarigatake.
The first foreigner to summit Mount Yari was an English engineer, William Gowland, 50 years after Banyrū. It was Gowland who first referred to the Hida Mountains on the main island of Honshu as the Japan Alps. Yari, which earned comparisons to the Matterhorn because of its spearhead peak, was then ascended by English missionary Walter Weston. Rev. Weston is known as the father of mountaineering in Japan, credited with popularizing recreational mountaineering there.
“Real Japanese outdoor enthusiasts in general prefer this area over Mount Fuji,” Hershel said of the Alps.
We hope to get real with those we meet on the 10,433-foot (3,180-meter) mountain. 