Three British men have recently completed a journey during which they aimed to climb Japan's 100 most famous mountains to raise money and awareness for anti-land mine campaigns in Afghanistan and other war-torn countries.
The 10-month effort ended on Dec. 4 when Tom Fearnehough, 26, scaled Mount Rausu in western Hokkaido -- his 98th peak in the journey.
Paul Briffa, 24, and Ben Davies, 23, both suffered injuries and had to give up their quest in its final stages, while bad weather forced Fearnehough to forgo climbing the final two mountains.
The three began their odyssey in February by climbing Mount Miyanoura on Yakushima Island, south of Kagoshima, and then moved north from Kyushu along the Japanese archipelago until reaching Hokkaido in November.
Fearnehough, the leader of the trio, said the three were sorry they could not make it up all 100 mountains. They walked some 6,700 km in the campaign.
Fearnehough, who lived in Hokkaido as a child and has long been fascinated by Japan's mountains, came up with the idea for the climbing trip after learning -- during a visit to Cambodia for research for his master's degree thesis -- how people's lives are threatened by land mines.
Their trip, scenes from which have been shown in Britain as well on the Web site www.japanesemountaintrek.org.uk/, raised about 12,000 British pounds (2.2 million yen), which was donated to an anti-land mine nongovernmental organization.