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Issue: 2017-02-01, PHOTO: courtesy of Yamnuska Mountain Tours
The Shinetsu Trail near Nagano, Japan takes hikers through forests of beech, oak, mountain ash and maple. These trees are ablaze with colour in the fall.
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Issue: 2017-02-01, PHOTO: courtesy of Yamnuska Mountain Tours
The Shinetsu Trail near Nagano, Japan takes hikers through forests of beech, oak, mountain ash and maple. These trees are ablaze with colour in the fall.
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Issue: 2017-02-01, PHOTO: courtesy of Yamnuska Mountain Tours
The Shinetsu Trail near Nagano, Japan takes hikers through forests of beech, oak, mountain ash and maple. These trees are ablaze with colour in the fall.
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Issue: 2017-02-01, PHOTO: courtesy of Yamnuska Mountain Tours
The Shinetsu Trail near Nagano, Japan takes hikers through forests of beech, oak, mountain ash and maple. These trees are ablaze with colour in the fall.
Coming from urban Japan to the vast Canadian wilderness changed Naoto Motoyama’s life. Now he wants to return the favour, inspiring Yukoners with the unique, natural beauty of his homeland.
Motoyama is the one-person, Yukon branch of Yamnuska Mountain Tours, which is based in Canmore, Alberta. For the past several years, he’s been hosting Japanese visitors in the Yukon, showing them the northern lights and leading hikes in Kluane and Tombstone parks.
Through this work, he’s seen the potential to draw tourists in the other direction — from the Yukon to Japan.
“You know, when you’re guiding Japanese people in Canada, you’re explaining how great Canadian nature is to Japanese guests. At the same time, we started to feel we should maybe do this kind of thing for Canadians in Japan… So it naturally came up from our experience guiding in Canada.”
He finds his island homeland has much to offer outdoorsy Yukoners, with its high mountain trails and strong cultural and spiritual ties to nature.
“The relationship between the people and the mountains, that’s something specifically I would like to share with the Canadian people,” Motoyama says, referring to an 11-day hike on the Shinetsu Trail in the mountains near Nagano.
People in the area make traditional Japanese paper from the trees. The trail itself has been used over centuries to transport or trade food and other goods between villages.
On this trip, visitors hike the undulating trail, heading down to villages to stay in traditional Japanese lodges and eat local food. They would see gorgeous panoramas, walk through old-growth forests and sometimes climb up to 1,000 metres.
“So they would need some hiking experience.”
Motoyama is a certified mountain guide, but started his career on a much different path. He grew up near Tokyo and as a young adult, launched into the exhausting life of an urban professional.
“I was an industrial supply salesperson in Tokyo. So… hair gel, tie, rush hour train every day,” he says with a smile.
Issue: 2017-02-01, PHOTO: courtesy of Yamnuska Mountain Tours
Naoto Motoyama, a former Tokyo salesman, now lives in Whitehorse guiding and organizing outdoor adventures.
He would leave home at 6:30 a.m. and return at 10 or 11 p.m. When Japan’s economy faltered, he wanted a change. He came to Canada, trained as a mountain guide, and moved to the Yukon to set up its Yamnuska branch in 2007.
Today, he still works in an office, marketing and organizing. “But I can commute by bike sometimes; I can finish my work by 5, have time to play music,” adding he now plays guitar in a band, something he never had time for in Japan.
He feels his time in Canada has given him a new perspective on the outdoor charms of his home county and he wants to share them with Yukoners.
“I feel lucky now, because I don’t have to sell things I don’t like to sell.”
Motoyama is holding a public slide show on the Shinetsu Trail hike on Saturday, Feb. 11 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Whitehorse United Church.
You can also learn more at www.GreatHikesJapan.com or by emailing Motoyama at info@yamnuska.com.