Typical weekend hike that ended in tragedy
Print Edition
MORE than 50 people died when Mount Ontake, a popular hiking destination in central Japan, erupted without warning on September 27 in the country’s deadliest volcanic eruption since World War II.
The victims included hiking enthusiasts from a major insurance company, members of a group of nature lovers studying wild plants, and a construction manager who snapped about 100 photos — found on his scratched and dented camera — to show his wife what she was missing because she had to work that day.
Together, they paint a typical picture of weekend recreational hikers in Japan. A few children and senior citizens, but mostly middle-aged working people enjoying the first Saturday of the autumn foliage season.
Most were between 30 and 59 years old, and lived within a few hours’ drive or train ride from the mountain. Three were children, and only five over 60.
“The best season for the leaves just started, the weather was beautiful, it was the weekend, and it was lunchtime,” said Masahito Ono, a Nagano prefecture tourism official.
Hiking has become one of Japan’s most popular outdoor activities. The core fans are middle-age climbers with some experience, but there’s a growing number of beginners: health-conscious senior citizens and fashionable women sporting a “mountain girl” look.
The number of hikers in Nagano surged to 730,000 last year, a 30 percent increase from five years ago.
With modest slopes and a ropeway that takes visitors part way up, 3,067-meter Ontake is one of the easier climbs in the region, recommended as a day trip for beginners. Several hundred people are believed to have been on the mountain when it erupted at 11:52am.
Hideomi Takahashi, 41, was among nine climbers from insurance company Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdings Inc. Only three survived.
At Takahashi's funeral, his family showed a close friend a phone with at least six photos from what would be the last few minutes of his life: a cloud floating next to the mountain in a clear blue sky, a sacred gate to a mountaintop shrine, some of his colleagues making their way up. The last photo shows Takahashi next to the “Mount Ontake summit.”
Construction company employee Izumi Noguchi, 59, was climbing alone, as his wife Hiromi, had to work. His camera was banged up, but the memory chip inside was undamaged. She printed all 100 shots. The last is of an enormous plume of smoke billowing from the crater.
“This is an amazing photo. But I wish he had fled instead of taking pictures,” Hiromi said.
Yasuo Ito, 54, didn’t even have time to eat his lunch.
His wife, also Hiromi, said the housing agency employee was among six members from a nature conservation volunteer group. Only three survived.
She identified his body and received his ash-coated knapsack. She pulled out a lunchbox. His sandwiches were untouched.
“Poor thing, he should have eaten this,” she said. “He must be getting hungry by now.”
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