Hello everyone, you are listening to Learn JapanesePod and today you are listening to the

大家好，您正在收聽 Learn JapanesePod，今天您正在收聽的是

Fun Friday edition of Podcast, where we talk to cool people doing cool things in Japan

Podcast 的 Fun Friday 版，我們會在這裡與在日本從事酷事的人們對談

and this episode is no exception because we are talking to the famous, the amazing,

而這集也不例外，因為我們正與知名且優秀的...

Wes!

Wes！

Yay!

耶！

Hey good morning, afternoon and evening to everyone out there in Learn JapanesePodland.

嘿，Learn JapanesePodland 的各位聽眾，大家早安、午安、晚安。

And hey, Wes, it's been a while.

嘿，Wes，好久不見了。

It is.

的確。

For the long time listeners, I have been on Fun Friday's before, but not this decade.

對於老聽眾來說，我以前上過 Fun Friday，但這十年來還沒有過。

Yeah, wait, oh my gosh yeah, it's been way way too long, but it's great to see you again

是啊，等等，天哪，真的太久太久了，但很高興能再次見到你

and you appeared on one of my podcasts, I think we were ordering pizza.

你曾出現在我的一集 Podcast 裡，我想那次我們正在點披薩。

That was probably the first one, that was when you still lived in Osaka.

那大概是第一集，當時你還住在大阪。

Yeah, I think that was like 2005-ish, that's pretty crazy, right?

And I still remember, I learned the word Kiji on that podcast, it kichi, so kiji means

the dough crust, the crust, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great.

So, Wes, for people who don't know you, you are the author of the amazing blog Hiking in Japan,

which can be found at difficult address to remember though, HikingInJapan.com.

That's right, don't forget the preposition.

Don't forget, don't forget that.

Japanese people are, yeah, Japanese people are like Hiking in Japan, like Hiking in Japan.

It's like, it's like when you go to gusto and you're like,

cheese in hamburger.

Yeah, it was like I have apple, I have pen, yeah, I have an apple, I have a pen, right?

Yeah, but I have that website and I started a YouTube channel, maybe two years ago,

as a New Year's resolution, and so I've been doing that along with my website.

And where can people find you on the YouTube's?

YouTube is Hiking in Japan, although with Google's SEO, you might be better googling Hiking in Japan

channel. Oh, okay, cool. And it should pop up. And your blog is amazing. You're a prolific writer.

How many blogs have you written? How about how many mountains?

That's a good question. I started my blog back when there was no information

on Japan's mountains in English. That was 2006, I believe, or seven, perhaps.

And at that time, I was climbing the Nihil and Hyukamazon, which is the 100 mountains of Japan.

And as I climbed each mountain, I just decided to blog about it and write

basically an online guide to climbing the 100 mountains. And providing

practical information, how to get to the trail description of the trail and other useful tips.

And so when I started that, there was nothing online in English about Japan's mountains.

There was a guidebook, the Lonely Planet Hiking in Japan guide. But apart from that,

there wasn't really much else online. So I started as that. And then I've just been adding

adding hikes from 2007 and 2008 until now, covering all over Japan.

I would say that hiking in Japan.com, don't forget that in hiking in Japan.com

is the go to hiking website. I mean, it's absolutely amazing. And you go into real detail

with each mountain, each walk, each hike, right? Yeah, I mean, I tried to write it more as a

practical guide, rather than a blog. A lot of people blogging about mountains and other things

in Japan, talk about their personal experience, whereas I'm just giving you the bare basic

practical information that you need to climb the mountain. So descriptions of the trail and

access, how to get there, especially without a car, because most of the majority of the mountains

I climb in Japan are done without a car, relying specifically on public transport, be it a train or

a bus or anywhere, any way I can get to the mountain, basically. And the great thing about Japan

is they have a fantastic transportation system, not only in towns, but also in rural areas too,

they're pretty well connected. So I guess would you agree that you can get to most mountains by train,

right? Yes, except for the really, really remote mountains in the middle of nowhere. But I would say

on the most part, 90% of the mountains I write about, you can get to on public transportation.

It may not be the most convenient way to get there, but there usually is a way to get there. But

for my YouTube channel, I have several different series going on, but the main series is called

how did I get here? And so basically I start off by filming on the summit of the mountain and then

I work your way back, how did I get to the summit from the bottom of the mountain from the trail head.

And what most people don't realize about that series is I just finished episode 31. So there's

going to be a total of 47 episodes. So viewers of my YouTube channel might start to realize that

I'm only doing one mountain for every prefecture in Japan. So now I've covered 31 of Japan's 47

prefectures. And so it's basically one hand picked mountain for every prefecture that I choose.

And main criteria is something that's easy to get to and also preferably a mountain that no one's

ever heard of. Because I feel like in Japan, people go to, if they're in Tokyo, they climb to

Kalson or they go to Mount Fuji or they go to the Japan Alps or in Kansai, they go to Roku and

Kongo, but I'm trying to show people that there's way more mountains out there than what people

realize. So Japan has about 15,000 mountains. Yeah, so it's can you put a figure on or an estimate

on how many mountains you've climbed? I generally don't like to climb the same mountain twice.

I'm more of a one in Don kind of person. I suppose in terms of that. So I haven't really counted.

I'd say probably 500 or 600 maybe. But I'm not really sure. You've got some more mountains to go.

But that's amazing. So you're the Go Hyakume-Zang.

I suppose, but you remember I'm climbing the mountains that are not famous mountains, so I wouldn't

say amazing. Okay, so you probably get this asked too many times and I hate to ask this, but I do

have to. What school would you give Mount Fuji from one to ten, ten being the best, one being

me. Okay. Could you clarify looking at Mount Fuji or climbing Mount Fuji? Climbing Mount Fuji

as an experience. Is it enjoyable? Is it worth it? As an experience hiker, how would you rate it?

I would rate it as three out of ten. Oh, it's pretty low. Yeah. I suppose the three is maybe the

experience of climbing the mountain. Sure. But in terms of being on the peak, surrounded by people

above the tree line where it's just volcanic rock all around and no shelter from the wind

or the rain. Yeah. That's why I would rank it in number three. However, viewing Mount Fuji from

any other mountain is a ten. Oh, yeah. So I always tell people Mount Fuji is better appreciated

from far or from an adjacent mountain. Yeah. No. That sounds like great advice. Wow. Fantastic. So

dear listener, if you have some time and you want to check out about hiking in Japan, do visit

hiking in Japan.com. Now, whereas I have an important question for you, in all your 500-ish

hikes, have you ever encountered a bear in Japan? Just one time. But it doesn't really count. Why?

Because I arrived at the trailhead. Yeah. And I took two steps onto the mountain. And the bear appeared.

Yeah. Right in front of me. Really? However, I was starting my hike from a ski resort. Right. So

the bear was literally like just walking down the black diamond run going, I'm walking down the bear,

I'm walking down the bear, black diamond slope to go drink some water from the river. Wow. And so I stood

there and I watched the bear walk maybe off 50 or 100 meters in front of me. Yeah. I didn't make a

sound. I just stood there going, that looks like a laboratory retriever. But just a little bit bigger and

a little bit longer. But that bear was scrawny. Yeah. It looked like it had not eaten in a while. And it

looked like it was really looking forward to jumping in that little stream and getting a drink of water.

Yeah. It was in August. It was, I think it was August first actually. Yeah. Very hot summer day in

Kansai. This is in Shiga Prefecture. Right. I saw the mountain. I saw that bear. The bear did not

look at me. Did not seem to acknowledge my existence. I didn't make any noise. I didn't want to

tell the bear that I was there. Yeah. So I just kind of stood there. And I was kind of shocked. I

was like, Oh my goodness, there is a bear. So I kind of waited. I luckily I was at the ski resort.

And there was a, at the bottom of the ski lift where I was, there was a building there. I guess for

ski lift workers or ski lift maintenance. So I stood at the building and I said, Well, okay,

if the bear does charge at least I have a building to protect me. I mean, the worst case scenario

I could have broken the window and jumped into the building and grabbed some pieces of wood or

something to try to fight with that if push came to shove. Luckily that did not happen.

Right. So I just kind of waited there for a while. However, I realized where the bear came from

was not the direction of the trail. So I think that bear was actually trying to tell me, Hey,

Wes, this is not the trail that you want to take. These are not the droids that you're looking for.

The bear, the bear, Kami, we're giving you divine inspiration. Do not come this way. Yeah,

absolutely. And so ever since that happened, I was like, you know, maybe that bear was there

for a reason to tell me. And then when I checked my map and I was like, you know what,

that's right. I don't need to go up that black diamond slope. I can walk up the other slope on

the other side of the ski resort and that will take me up to the trail. So you say it was like,

don't come up here. Just leave it to the professionals. Leave it to us bears.

Yeah. Now that was the only time I've seen it on a trail, if you call it in Japan.

Right. Now the very first time I saw a bear was from the bus. Oh, no way. Going to Kamikochi.

Right. Where is, where is, for our listeners, where is Kamikochi in Japan?

Kamikochi is in Nagano prefecture, accessible from Matsumoto City. Yeah. So most people take the

train to Shin Shima Shima and then they take a shuttle bus from there. So I took the shuttle bus

from Shin Shima Shima and literally maybe five or six minutes outside of Shin Shima Shima.

There was a black bear in the middle of the road. No way, really. And I just happened to look. I just

for some reason, I was on the bus sitting near the back. Yeah. And I looked in front of the bus

and there was a bear. Like just coming off of the slope of the riverbank and he just popped his

head up. Yeah. And I saw it before the driver saw it. Yeah. So the only thing I could do is I literally

just stood up in the middle of the bus. Yeah. Bus was probably, I would say half full. It wasn't that

it was a weekday and it was in September. And I just stood up the bus and the only word that came out

of my mouth was, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

And as soon as I started screaming, come on, yeah. The bus driver looked up and said,

so the bus driver saw the bear, honked its horn. Twice did not slow down one bit in the

bear looked at the bus and said, okay, I'm going to retreat back into the river. And so I wonder

if that bus driver's had experience with bears before? It's probably. I was just hoping it wasn't

trying to run it over. I'm sure it wasn't. But after that happened, it was really funny because

there is the Japanese people on the bus were like, woo, woo, and looking all around trying to see the

bear. Now, three or four seats in front of me, there was a foreign guy. Yeah. And he turned

around and he's like, what did you say? I was like, oh, yeah, there was a bear in the middle of the

road. So I was shouting that there was a bear. Or he turned around and he said, actually, my name's

Kuma. Yes, I was like, what, how do you know my name? How did you know I work at Kuma?

Yeah, Kuma, right? Yeah. But by the way, if you, if you didn't know, Kuma is Japanese for bear.

So the, the previous incident you were out near like a ski chalet and this bed was walking down the

diamond slope and it was August. And this, when you were on the bus to Kamikotchi, when, when was

that? That was probably a couple of years before that, I would think. What kind, what time of year was

that? That was September. So I guess my two bear encounters have been like August and September.

Now, that's on the island of Honshu. Yeah. Because on the island of Honshu, there's the

Asiatic Black Bear, where the Asian Black Bear, which Alex in Japanese, do you know?

It's the hang on. No, what is it? What is it? Okay, good questions. Sorry. I'm not trying to show

you up, Alex. I know you are. No, no, no, no. Oh, your Japanese is way better than mine. No,

no, no, no, what is it? Well, I think anyone learning Japanese out there, you realize it's impossible

to learn every single word in the Japanese language. Sure, sure. So you'll find that your Japanese will

improve based on your own interests. Of course. And so my, my interests are mountains. Yeah. So I

know a lot of mountain Japanese. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. But if you ask me to explain economic policy

in Japanese, it would be like staring a deer in headlights. So my business Japanese knowledge is

good as my mountain Japanese knowledge. I am happy you have hiking Japanese because I think

for entertainment sake, I'd probably be falling asleep if you were giving an economic forecast in

Japanese. As with the readers. So yeah, they're listeners. So we know bear is kuma. And the the

black bear in Japan is the Asian bear. It's what what's that in Japanese? That's the tsukinoa guma.

Tsukinoa. Tsukinoa guma. So Tsukinoa moon. And why is ring? Yeah. So Tsukinoa, so the moon

ring bear. But because it's a compound, we don't say kuma, we say guma. Guma. Yeah. It

modifies the, yeah, you put a dakutan on the kuu and change the guu. So it's tsukinoa guma.

That's right. Yeah. Because I had heard that they were called moon bears. And those those.

Yes. And so the agiatic black bears do have a white ring on their belly or their chest.

And they're more spread out in Japan, aren't they? So the, I guess we can get into

bear statistics, but basically the Japan has, again, I think you know more about this than I do,

but there's two cons of bears. There's the brown bear. And then there's the black bear.

Let's talk about the black bear first, because that's been in the news more in the brown bear.

So, so the black bear is more spread out across Japan, like so my understanding is the brown

bear is more in Hokkaido. And then the, that's correct. The black bear is spread out. And it's

been cited in like most prefeatures in Japan. Well, yes and no, it's thought to be extinct on

the island of Kyushu. Right. There's been no reported, no confirmed bear sightings in the last

decade, I believe. Right. And on Shikoku, they're considered endangered. Right. I think the last,

I heard there was about 20 black bears on the island of Shikoku. Oh really, wow, wow.

So, overwhelming majority of the population is in Tohoku. Right. Okay.

Followed by, you know, Kanto, Yoshinatsu, and Chubu. And then to a smaller extent, Kansai and Chugoku

regions. Right. Right. And then the, my understanding too is that the black bears are far more

dangerous and aggressive. Oh no, no, the, the brown bears are more aggressive, right?

That is correct. And then the black bears tend to be more timid and kind of run away when they

hear or smell humans. Although, I'm sure they're not entirely safe though. Are they?

No, well, I mean, I think this year the black bears have gotten all the notoriety because of all

the bear attacks that we've heard of in the news recently. There's lots of theories as to why this

happens. I blame it on Labubu actually. It's like the bears didn't want to be outdone by everyone

carrying their cute little Labubus. So, so where's I've got a question? And you can answer true or false

bears are just cuddly little fluffy toys that just, they misunderstood and they want to, they want

to hug, right? If you're referring to Kumamon, that is correct. Right. But the real, the real bears,

yeah, no. So, so the, so the black bears, they're all over Japan, mostly Honshu, right?

Yes. And then the brown bears, I do know this, they're called Usuri.

Yeah, they are called Usuri. However, more common terminology would be Higuma.

Oh, Higuma. Which is another Guma. Guma. What's the kanji for Hig? Fire. No, actually, I don't know,

sorry. Let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, we didn't doubt if you don't know the kanji or something.

Google. Well, no, yeah, but you also just use what your brain is familiar with. So that's the first

word that came up out of my brain. Higuma. Oh, it looks like it's in katakana.

Yeah, there might be a kanji. It's interesting in Japan, a lot of animal names are written in katakana.

So I heard that the brown bears are far more aggressive and dangerous.

Yes, they are and they're bigger as well. I read up online that it said the Japanese brown

bears, the Higuma are bigger than American grizzlies. And I, that just didn't sound right to me.

So I did a bit of searching and apparently Japanese brown bears are bigger than North American grizzlies

in like in the main continent, but apparently Alaskan brown bears are much, much bigger. So I think

they're called the Alaskan Kodiak bears. Oh, yes. Just don't go near them. They will miss you.

Yeah. Yeah. Some of your listeners may be familiar with Hoshino. Michio Hoshino. Yes, yes, yes.

Michio Hoshino is a famous Japanese photographer, nature photographer.

And he was killed by a brown bear up in Russia in 1996. If you look at a map of Russia,

there's a little tiny peninsula that jarts down and that's called Kamchakka. I believe that's

the name of the, and he was mauled on that peninsula by the Kamchakta brown bear.

I don't know if that tea is pronounced or not. Kamchakka, I would say. I guess the Kamchakka brown bear

is a relative of the Higuma or the Usuri brown bear on Hokkaido because they're really close to each

other. So I think he was probably the first famous bear victim abroad, at least for Japanese.

Wait, what was that? What was that story in like, was it a Thai show period,

where there was this bear that killed like 10 people? They made a movie out of it. And it was

there was. Yeah. So I guess brown bears or Higuma have had more of a reputation over the

years for being bloodthirsty. Yeah. This summer there was a very famous incident

in Shirei Toko on the trail to Rousu that game. Yeah. And the, I'm not exactly sure I didn't

read all of the details. A lot of times when you see these incident reports or these stories

written in Japanese about accidents in Japan's mountains, they are lacking a lot of details,

which is a shame because we have no idea. I heard that. So there were two people descending.

I believe they were descending the mountain and one got attacked and dragged off of the trail.

Right. Right. I believe it was a mother bear. I think the cub was nearby.

And then they went back and they found the body. And I guess the bear had eaten that

victim. But I heard that it was, they were trail running, which is probably the worst thing that

you can do in Japan in terms of being attacked by a bear. There was a, there was a go from New

Zealand who was trail running. And he got attacked by a bear and the bear bit his arm immediately

breaking it. He managed to somehow escape. And then he ended up in hospital. He survived.

But now that story, that story did not make the Japanese news. Do you know why? Why?

Well, it wasn't a mountain accident because he got off the trail and called the ambulance.

So he didn't require a mountain rescue. And I think that's why the Japanese media didn't really

pick up on that story. Right. Right. Because the, the, I mean, the whole point about the

recent bear tax in Japan is that they, they used to happen in very remote areas. But now they're,

you know, increasingly happening in more urban areas and human settlements. By the way, I've got

some, I've got some stats for you here. Are you ready? Okay. And I couldn't believe these.

My head exploded. So apparently in the US, there were 11 reported bear attacks.

Right. And they've got hundreds of thousands of bears there. Right. And I was looking and it said,

you know, data is hard to come by because a lot of incidents aren't reported. And it's hard

to collect the data. But there's, call it 11, take that with a pinch of salt. Right. In Europe,

there were 18 bear attacks in Eurasia, which is like Iran and Russia. There were 19 bear attacks.

Okay. Buckle up was in Japan over 200 attacks, checks notes, mauled, bitten and dragged by bears.

It's like, that's insane. And then 13 people were killed in the last year. And yeah, over 200 injured,

which is insane. So the like the single highest number of bear attacks is in Japan. And that's

more than all bear attacks globally combined. So I don't know what's in the water. I mean, the water

and I was looking into some of the bear attacks. And basically, so this guy from New Zealand,

he wasn't in the middle of nowhere. Right. I mean, I guess he was in a somewhat rural area,

but he was close enough to the town to get an ambulance to come and pick him up. Right. So

what they're saying is bears have been increasingly been spotted in schools, supermarkets,

railway stations. I mean, that's kind of scary. And apparently, like a bear wandered onto the runway

in Yamagata Airport, and they had to ground all the planes. Yeah, I think that was Yamagata or Miyagi

was somewhere. Yeah, maybe, yeah. Well, this is, I just want to say, this is like,

it's all relative, right? Well, I would say this year is kind of the exception to the norm.

This has never really happened in Japan before. Right. And so that's why I think it's

it has garnered a lot of attention. Right. Sure. But also, I think because of all these attacks,

people are kind of scared now. The way it's presented in the media, you would think that it's in

it's on the increase. Well, you would think yeah, that everywhere in Japan, you're in danger of

getting attacked or mod by a bear. No, no, no, that's not the case, but yeah, yeah, it's fine,

Japan safe. You're, you're not going to get attacked by a bear. However, compared to before,

the bear attacks have been increasing. Well, I think there's always been this

cultural idea that bear equals dangerous animal for humans. And so

while there have been a lot of attacks recently, those attacks are not occurring in the mountains

they're occurring in the Sato Yama or on the foothills of the mountains because the bears are

coming down into the human habitat. Yeah. And so basically, what happens is every time a bear comes

into the village and it attacks someone or is being seen, there's this mentality of let's

hunt it and kill it. Right. And so there's been some issues recently with calling bears. Yeah.

Um, I guess the issue that I kind of see is they don't really know exactly how many

black bears there are. Right. They have estimates. Now, there's been estimates that said there's

been about anywhere between 40,000 and 50,000 black bears on the island of Honshu. But I'm wondering how

they can't exactly count the specific number of bears, right? I'm guessing these are estimates. So

they say it's around 17,000 black bears in Hokkaido. It's a 40, something thousand in Honshu for

black bears. Right. So it's roughly 50 to 60,000ish bears in Japan. Yeah. So my, I mean,

you know, obviously they're saying this year, it was really hot summer as it's been the last few

years, the number of, you know, acorns and beach nuts and other food has been scarce. Yeah. And so

they're thinking that and also they're thinking that it's been a big explosion of the bear population.

That's why a lot of a lot of bears are coming down into the valley. What people may not realize is

I think the, the recent plight of the black bear has some possible similarities to the, the plight

of the Japanese wolf. Oh, interesting. And so what happened with the Japanese wolf during the

major era and the Taishu era, I guess what happened with the Japanese wolf in the major era is

a lot of wolves were coming down out of the mountains into the villages. Right. And every time the

wolf came into the village, they were killed. Yeah. And so they kept killing the wolves and killing

wolves and killing wolves. And all of a sudden the wolves no longer showed up in the villages.

And they found out that they were extinct. So actually the very last reported, confirmed

reported sighting of a Japanese wolf was 1909. No, actually sorry that the last reported

Japanese wolf was 1905. And that was in Nara prefecture and he got shio shino village.

And are they just wild wolves that completely extinct? They're completely extinct. So my,

I can, I understand the need to maybe call the animals, but my fear is what if this year is the

start of a new trend and the bears are actually on their last fight for survival. And so as more and

more bears exit the mountains and come into the villages, if all these bears are cold, then there

might be a time in the future where bears are no longer coming into the village because we find out

that they're extinct. Right. I mean, you never know if that's going to happen. But you know,

and I don't think it's going to happen something like now. But what if they, what if this calling

issues continues for 20 or 30 years? I think there's two sides to the debate in terms of what

to do. One is, let's call them and use, you know, AI surveillance systems to track the bears.

And then the other, on the other side, I think this kind of the point you're making is like,

well, you can call them. But if you, if you call too many, it's, that's over you, you know,

that there's a danger they could become extinct. And so, so the other side is they,

what they want to do is create like buffer zones between human settlements and the areas where they

breed. Yeah. And it's, it's really interesting. So I was reading like a bunch of blogs on why they

think these attacks are happening. And like you said, they're coming into human settlements more

and more. And what was like really interesting was, I found some stuff I hadn't thought about. And

apparently, some people think that big, they had had some wildlife conservation policies.

And that had actually helped to increase the number of bears. And the really interesting one was,

there was a so cool, so you know, Fukushima has an exclusion zone. So when that nuclear power

station exploded, they created this exclusion zone. And that actually became an accidental

wildlife preserve. And so you had this exploded, not just bears, but just an explosion in wildlife

because there weren't any humans to scare the animals away or whatever. Or to run them over with

their car or run them over with their cars and and all that kind of stuff. Obviously, this climate

change you were talking about, so food is becoming more scarce, there are less barriers, less nuts,

the sacorns, and so they're forced to, you know, forage for food nearer human settlements, right?

So I think also with the deep population of the rural areas,

whereas in the smaller villages aligning the mountains, there used to be a lot more people living

there. Now there's a lot more empty houses. And so I think in previous years, maybe

you know, a few decades ago, if a bear came into village, they would be scared off by the humans

there. But now the bears coming down and there's no humans there. And they're like, oh,

there's a bunch of person that are unpicked and just nuts that are unpicked. Let me just feast

on these things. And then they see the humans. And then I think the bears are not really attacking

because they're like, I want to attack humans. They're attacking because they're freaked out.

I don't know what to do. And they see these people. And they, because if you see a lot of the footage

online, the bears are ambushing these people just out of nowhere. And I think it's more of a

reflex. Yeah, there was a really scary story of this old guy who was working at an onsen,

like a hot bath. And he was outside the back of the building,

clearing leaves or something. And the bear just came up and swiped him and that was the end of him.

And he was just kind of mining his own business, but because these bears were, you know,

encroaching on human settlements, you know, these encounters of like bound to happen.

Yeah. I didn't think about this before, but it kind of makes sense that the other climate change

issue is because the winters are getting shorter and the summers are getting longer and hotter.

The bears' hibernation patterns are changing. So they're actually awake and wandering around

for a longer time during the year. Yeah, I heard that they only really hibernated and

they're really cold and areas with a lot of snow, like tall and cool. Because for example,

I've been hiking in, well, it was November. I was hiking in the mountains of like Okujichibu.

Yeah. And I was following frozen bear tracks in the snow. Oh, really, really.

On the ridge. And I was like, oh, okay. So maybe that's maybe, or maybe they're

hibernating a lot later. Maybe it's more like December or January, only. Yeah.

It depends on the region, of course, but I've hiked in the winter and I've seen bear tracks here

in Kansai, so. Oh, there you go. So yeah, they don't necessarily all hibernate then. That's

interesting. Yeah. In terms of encountering bears when you hike, like I said, I've only encountered

one, despite climbing 500 mountains. So you're, if you run into a bear, consider yourself very

unlucky, unless you really, really want to see a bear. Yeah. Even the summer I was hiking in Fukushima

prefecture. It really remote area of the Azuma mountains, definitely in bear country. I had

bears prey with me as a precaution, but didn't see any bear at all. Right. Right. So I think there's

this image of, oh, if you go into the mountains, you're going to see bears and they're going to attack

you. And I think that's just not entirely true. There's definitely an element of hype because

this is, you know, it's not sensational, but it's a striking piece of news. It's very emotional.

Right. And so everyone reports on the reports. And so it feels like there's nothing but bear it.

It's tsunami's earthquakes and bear attacks. Exactly. Exactly. But it's, I mean, I would say there's

definitely a trend upwards compared to loss it like the last two years or last year. I've seen the

butt, butt, butt, butt. Like you said, if you bear your incredibly unlucky, I would have thought.

Yeah, definitely. And the Japanese government is trying to, they have some countermeasures

that they're trying to do as well, bringing in the self-defense force and the, you know,

getting, doing more culling and, you know, bear drills and training programs, which I think are

necessary. And the AI, as you mentioned as well. The point you made before that with the wolf in

Japan, that they overdid it with the culling. And they just wiped them out. And I'd never thought of

that. But it's, it's, um, it's definitely possible that humans can go to, go from one extreme to

the other. Yeah, let's hope, let's, let's hope they don't. I like, I like the idea of new AI

surveillance systems and drones that track bears. That sounds kind of cool because if you, if you

can tag enough bears near human settlements, I guess you could have like an early warning system.

Right. Yeah, definitely. And it's less, it's less destructive to

would definitely the bear population and nature if you're not culling absolutely all of them.

Yeah, I know that, um, speaking of bear encounters and bear activity,

I believe it was either last year or the year before there was a bear roaming around

Kami Kouchi. Oh, really? And they had to, they had to close the campsite there.

That's called as she died out because the bear was coming in and trying to get into the trash cans

and then it was, and I think it actually did attack someone who received minor injuries.

But that happens. Wait, Wes, I've just had an idea for our next IT startup

um, we'll make AI surveillance drones with bear spray and you carry them in your backpack,

right? And then when you see a bear, you press a button on your phone and it shoots out from

your backpack, it goes towards the bear and it sprays it with bear spray and it plays heavy metal

music as well to scare it. And so it's a non lethal, it's a non lethal, uh, safety precaution you

can take. Wes, um, let's, let's get funding for our new startup. Bears are us. I don't know,

I don't know what we call the company. But it's insane. It's like, again, just looking at those

figures that there were like 200 attacks in Japan. I mean, 200 attacks in a population of 150,

well, actually, you know, what's the population of your 120 million? What is that?

Yes, something like that. Um, 200 attacks, 200 attacks in a population of 200 million is like,

yeah, I mean, that's, that's not too scary. But it's more than before. Yeah. And like I said,

the majority of attacks have been in Toho guru. Toho guru. And a few in Nagano,

Nigata kind of area. But I did hear there was some bear sightings in Ome and like near Takau san.

I heard there was a bear sighting in Arashiyama. Really in Kyoto. Yeah. And wow.

Well, that might be true. Could have been a tourist in a bear. I could have been a tourist. I mean,

you could have. No, there are bears in Kyoto. So if you hike in the mountains of northern Kyoto,

you will see beware of bear signs, so forth. But um, honestly speaking, don't you find wild

bulls and more scary? Well, those are nocturnals. You don't really see them. Oh, okay.

Unless you hike at night, unless, however, in the Roku Mountains, just behind Kobe,

yeah, yeah, yeah, they've kind of become active in the daytime because they know they can get

free handouts. Yeah, I saw an Inoshishi in, I think it was Roku. I was actually hiking there.

And I saw it and they're like walked in front of me. And I was absolutely terrified

because I know they'll charge, right? Yeah, they will. And they're, they're not tall, but they're

solid. And I'm sure they could really mess you up. So. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. But I think, yeah,

I mean, there's, there, there are dangers when you can go to the mountains. But I would say being

attacked by a bear is pretty low on the list. Right, right, right. So for people hiking, the most

common cause of accidents is getting lost. Yep. That's the number one without a doubt. And then

then after that health issues, yeah, are a big one falls falling down during yourself.

But I would say you're more likely to get stung by a hornet than you are to get attacked by a bear.

Yeah, right. However, I think our listeners probably want to realize what we should do if we

encounter a bear. Exactly. And you're probably asking the wrong person because I've only had one

bear encounter. Do carry bear spray? I will say bear spray is probably not going to protect you

from a bear attack unless the bear gives you some kind of warning before the attacks. If you get

ambushed, bear spray is enough. It will not help you. However, I do carry it when I hike in

Tohoku. Yeah. I carried bear spray specifically for peace of mind. Yeah. When you say it doesn't work

if it pounces on you from behind, is that because then it's just too late right? Well, I mean,

if the bear attacks without warning, there's not really much you can do. Unless you're, unless you're

hiking with the spray in your hand, ready to spray it because it takes time. If you have the

bear spray attached to the side of your body like on your hip, you've got to take it out and then

spray it. Right. Right. Right. So, but if the bear, if you see a bear in front of you, the bear stops

and looks at you, then you have time to grab it and protect yourself apparently.

But if you, but if you have the bear spray, at least you're like, well, at least I've got something in

case rather than having nothing just your bare hands, pun intended. Sorry, that's, that's B-A-R-E. Sorry.

I'm not walking around with B-E-A-R hands. It was a bit bare hands here.

Or by the way, this reminds me of talking to my good friend Yolanda from New Zealand and she said,

the other day I went into, I was hiking in the woods and I saw these bees. I'm like, really?

You saw, really? I said, yeah, I saw all these bees. Like that, that must have been terrifying.

I said, no, I just took them home and then drank them. Oh, beers. I've got you were saying

bees. Yeah, bees, yeah, no, but I said to it, okay, say beer. She said beer. Okay, say

bear and she said, beer. I'd like to personally apologize to the people of New Zealand.