Japan In Focus

Center Launched to Provide Guides for Japan’s Mt. Nokogiri; Custom-Made English Tours of Mountain Available

Courtesy of WeGuide Nokogiriyama
A trainee guide speaks during a trial tour on Mt. Nokogiri in Futtsu, Chiba Prefecture, in October 2023.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:19 JST, July 24, 2024

FUTTSU / KYONAN, Chiba — The Nokogiriyama Guide Center has been launched to convey the appeal of Mt. Nokogiri, a 329-meter mountain that straddles Futtsu and Kyonan in Chiba Prefecture.

The center is an incorporated association set up to dispatch guides to provide sightseeing tours of the mountain. The center is also responsible for training new guides.

The project to train paid guides began in September 2022 and was undertaken by a council that aims to see Mt. Nokogiri recognized as a Japanese Heritage site. The council certified 16 people as paid guides in March this year after they completed a training program.

The qualified tour guides now belong to the new association, which has also taken over the training of new guides. Tour guides are dispatched at the request of domestic and foreign tourist agencies, with custom-planned English language tours also available.

Kaori Sasho, who represents the body, said that the center is also called WeGuide Nokogiriyama to convey the staff’s eagerness to guide visitors.

In training guides, the center will teach potential guides the relic of a quarry and the Nihonji temple, among other things related to the mountain. Practical lessons in safety management for climbers will also be provided, and a basic first aid training course will be held at a fire station.