Late January 2014 took me on a highly spontaneous 4 week trip to Japan with Rob Baker. After sampling a little of the famous powder skiing on Hokkaido, the real adventure began as we travelled to the central Japanese Alps on Honshu for 9 days of ice and mixed climbing near the peaks of Kaikomagadake and Amidadake. 
Basing ourselves near Kaikomagadake for 7 days gave us unlimited icefalls to choose from. Before jumping on lead, we warmed up by toproping several steep ice and mixed routes. Once we were feeling pretty solid on the steep stuff, we began to attack some longer multi-pitch routes.
Our first multi-pitch was not particularly difficult, but did allow us to explore some beautiful terrain including a cave with ice flows running through it. To get through the cave, an ice runnel which flowed down a chimney had to be climbed. A surreal pitch!
The second multi-pitch route was fairly straight forward until the end, where we encountered the largest icefall of the trip. Approximately 40m of fairly sustained ice, Rob placed 6 ice screws before topping out. The pitch was long enough to get lost in a rhythm of swinging ice tools and stabbing front points. Beautiful.
After building confidence at Kaikomagadake, we relocated to Amidadake to tackle something longer, this time moving faster and lighter. The below photo shows our route up the south face.
Having sharpened our skills with 7 days of climbing before hand, much of the moderate terrain was easily soloed. This saved time and prevented us getting cold from standing around belaying.
The photos below show some of the pitches requiring a rope. They were generally short but steep icefalls that took two or three ice screws. There was a lot of snow to walk through between icefalls, and the sunny weather meant we stayed fairly warm. All in all the most perfect conditions one could ask for.
After about 12 pitches of interesting and challenging climbing (and an hour of swimming through chest-deep snow towards the end) we topped out on the ridge. Amidadake afforded spectacular views of the central Japanese alps, and the weather could not have been kinder to us. A relatively short zombie march down the ridge brought us back to camp by nightfall.
A couple of days later, after having said farewell to Rob, I went with Ed Hannam to some crags on the outskirts of Tokyo to do some aid climbing training. What was supposed to be just 2 days of up-skilling became yet another sensory overload. The second day had sun and blue sky following a night of snowfall, which gave the trees the effect of cherry blossoms in spring! Learning the principles of aid climbing was definitely a worthwhile thing to do. It opens up a new world of routes when you’re prepared to climb using aiders. The process of ascending a wall using nothing but gear is one where creativity, problem solving, and organisation are far more important than strength. I suspect my trad leading will have benefited as well after having experimented with weird gear placements like stacked nuts, pika toucans, hooks, and incredibly marginal big brothers.
Japan surprised me for so many different reasons. I had no idea about the sheer volume and quality of ice routes on offer here. And though it has some of the most densely populated cities in the world, Japan is a country where true wilderness can still be found. In addition to the beauty of the Alps, the convenience of Japan is impressive: a network of highly efficient trains will in a few hours take you from downtown Tokyo to a mountain trail, which in winter will very quickly start to feel very remote. I made the decision to do this trip about a week before I arrived in the country, and it turned into one of the best and most productive trips I’ve ever done. I guess it goes to show that flexibility and spontaneity definitely increase your chances of having amazing adventures.