Are climbing gyms in Japan just... better?
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
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How hard would you climb here?
1:22 Japan grading scale explained
1:40 8 kyuu/ V0-
1:48 7 kyuu/ V0
2:19 6 kyuu/ V0
2:44 5 kyuu/ V1
4:18 4 kyuu/ V2
5:17 3 kyuu/ V3
9:54 2 kyuu/ V4
15:56 (world cup wall)
SLAB IS SEXY STICKERS!!! Get yours here: annahazelnutt....
Extra thanks to Emile from @HoopersBeta for being an amazing travel partner in Japan and for filming this video! 🙏🏽
#bpump #japanbouldering #gymcomparison
Basically only the people who climb at b-pump can use the “v2 in my gym” line
Ye this is next level sandbagging
@@gingobingo1567 I think some commercial gyms in the US are more soft than how much is sandbagged in Japan. I feel EU is a sweetspot, at least consistent with outdoor grades.
@@SUM1518 It’s interesting how the grading seems to shift around the world and from gym to gym. I recently went to bpump and climbed the red “SoCal V7” in the video. I thought it was around V5 if you use my local gyms grading system in Australia, and it’s V3 at bpump! 😂 That grade difference is crazy, just shows how useless it is talking about grades sometimes, and how the same number can mean very different things to very different people depending on their experiences.
try Adam Ondra's gym Kotelna in Brno - some of the 7A are closer to 7C moonboard benchmarks :D
The effort put into the sponsorship bit is always a highlight in your videos.
i always skip it, in every video... the amount of overpriced stuff that is being advertised is just stupid, if spotify or google or something would advertise as heavily the opinion would be a little different
@@pixelcrust Completely agree. I like Magnus, and I like a lot of these climbers that are now being sponsored by Rungne. But the price of that stuff is atrocious.
By all means, get that bag. I'm not hating in that sense. But it's not worth the price. Any chalk bag will do.
im not hating on anna for taking the sponsorship deal
@@Yakushii luxury brands have never been worth it for pure functionality. That's not what people buy them for - ofcourse any standard stuff will do. I think everyone knows they're paying a premium for an assurance of quality, bunch of QOL improvements, sustainable development as well as prestige. Certainly seems worth the price to me over mass produced stuff from china etc
@@UltimateMajor yeah like the bag is well-made and pretty. If you’ve got the money why not?
Climbing in Japan is like climbing at the School Room in Sheffield except it's the whole country. If you want your ego smacked down in the interest of learning, it's the best.
Outdoor boulder grades are pretty variable in the UK but I found the ones in the Peaks to be pretty stiff generally, but I liked it (and have no qualms)
I really loved your enthusiasm about the "easier" climbs, it's a breath of fresh air to see a beast of a climber actively enjoy climbs that are supposed to be way under your flash level. That's what B-pump does to you! I've been there a few times and it truly lives up to the hype
holy crap Anna. Never thought id see anyone other than Internet comment etiquette make sponsor bits something genuinely enjoyable to watch. your editing skills have got so good so fast.
Nice reference to Erik!
Thank you!!! I like to have fun with the sponsor segments. I feel like they're my way to be extra creative outside of the climbing content!
I guess it's true, just ignore the grade and enjoy the climbing. I'm definitely adding b-pump ogikubo to the list of places to go.
11:40 "im gonna try this one cause its a LITTLE more my style" comes off overhang slopers and goes to slab crimps.
🤭
@@AnnaHazelnutt Oh! Nice flash, but sorry, at Bpump Ogikubo (my home gym), volumes are not on for all climbs. The Blue volume you used as a foot was only for the Blue holds climb next to it =( (which is consequently also a 2kyu). Doesn't look like you needed it though! =) just a small bump up.
@@RandomLifeJoy Don't worry I didn't use the volume :) there are two little notex foot chips right near it that are pink that I'm teetering on! Proper flash.
Anna, thank you. The last video I was watching about b-pump was basically all complaints about how hard and frustrating it was and I have no idea of how much truth was in your words (I mean video work is always a bit play pretend, isn't it) but I loved the mindset you are showing. Just like Louis would phrase it - 'that looks like fun to try' - not necessarily - oh, I should be able to do this, this feels unfair etc. Loved you saying how strong you could get by staying there longer - really inspiring and why I love watching your videos! Thank you!
The mindset you approach climbing with is so key. Curious-playful mindset leads to experimentation, fun, and growth. “I should be able to do this” mindset leads to ego-induced disappointment. Anna is great at doing the former :)
@@EmileModesitt Aww thanks Emile!! You're good at this too! It can be hard but it's definitely the right mindset for me. Especially with how much I travel, understanding that different countries have different styles and grades helps me have more fun
The amount of holds per wall in japanese gyms is just nuts. My brain can't process it 😅 And this one isnt even that bad
Land values are through the roof in populated areas. Gotta get as much into the small space as you can.
Don't google Volny Climbing then…
I really liked the density!! It kinda makes every wall a spray wall too which is nice if you're like me and enjoy "setting" outdoor cruxes on indoor sets for practice.
@JonaasK yeah, when I first started climbing here in Japan the norm was 1) super dense walls 2) use tape for problems instead of hold colors 3) reset entire gym once a year. Things have changed a lot since, more and more gyms are adopting a more "modern" system
Great vid guys! I was at this gym about 5 years ago and had so much fun. Yes, I got shut down like crazy, so it was cool seeing you and Emile get shut down by this style too haha! Climbing here will invariably get you stronger though. 💪 Pretty sick that you unlocked time travel too. Wasn't expecting that 🕜
Wow!! This just really shows the difference between the training mentality within the States VS Japan…so fun to see you getting hyped on all those climbs!! Also, that slab is pretty sexy!
Your videos make my day just a little better. I love your attitude,..paraphrasing, "it's just so hard, I love it." It's such a positive and fueling mindset... makes you want to keep challenging yourself, almost as if the process failure is the actual reward. I've just started to really go outside my comfort zone when climbing and seeing so many positive changes.
Interesting factoid, Japan grades climbs based upon the martial art ranking system. So thats why they go down and back up, for the grades counting down towards black belt then counting back up for each degree of black belt, the Kyu and Dan ranking systems if you want to Google for more.
It's not exclusve to martial arts, its origins in modern Japanese are actually as rankings for Go. But when modern bouldering was first established in Japan, they wanted to inject some "Japanese culture" into it, and started using Kyu-Dan rather than the YDS which was in use at the time, and what was already established here for rope climbing.
Great video! Thanks for noting the color grades and your estimations throughout the video; it helped give some perspective to the climbs.
That mindset is so good! Positive response from being challenged hard is such a treat to experience
Super nice that you provided your experience and preferences as context, really helps to get an understanding of the difficulty.
Great video Anna! Seeing you, who is so great at slab, get shut down on the comp slabs just underscores how amazing some of the great comp slab climbers are.
Yes!! The comp slabs are so unique and dynamic, it feels like I would learn so much by climbing there!! I'm such a static/outdoor slab girlie
feels like a lot of climbing youtubers went to Japan recently
love the happy energy in this video!
Really loved the edit at 11:35 and music choice!!
B-PUMP Ogikubo ROCKS! I feel so validated watching this
Anna, you are so radiant! Watching this gave me a big smile and was so motivating. I began climbing while living here (in my second year of living in Japan, down south in Kyushu) and the climbing culture here is just so incredible. As you are a climber that inspires me so much- seeing you enjoy a gym over here made me even more happy. I haven't been out to B-pump yet but I gotta check it out.
Also, I've noticed too there are no training spots in the gyms I've been at. I only ever see a hangboard and/or a training bar (I don't know if there is a different word for it in english - it's like a sloper-y bar that can rotate and you hang from it) but that's about it. Compared to American gyms where they have weights and all that jazz. So it's an interesting difference :) The climbers here are so skilled and just amazing.
This is how you make an advert to keep your audience entertained and stopping them from skipping it.
Excellent work.
I'm also enjoying the video =)
Looks sick climbing in Japan, setting seems really creative
probably the most adorable and enjoyable sponsor segment i've seen on YT to date!
You look so happy in this video! :D amazing boulders.
I love this so much I could watch this all day. Please move to Japan so I can watch you get better at these insane slabs 😂
My US gym recently hosted some guest setters from a gym in Japan. They were able to set problems in a few of the sections in full Japaneses style and grading and then colab'd with our setters on some other sets to spice up US style. I was so stoked to get one 2 kyuu so far being they had it as the 3rd hardest of 8 tapes thinking it was probably like v7ish that my gym normally sets... Look up the conversion and it's like v4 lol. It has been really fun to have a taste of Japan here at home.
Loved the smooth and really Japanese edition! I went to Japan and B-Pump not a long ago and it was pretty funny seeing your faces after squeezing all your muscles for a V3. Thanks for this video
Thank you so much for showing the whole range! Your videos always leave me so relaxed and happy :)
Welcome to Japan! wanted to see you at B-pump Ogikubo!
really fun to see you climb at my home gym! I hope you enjoyed it and your trip to tokyo!
Absolutely LOVED Tokyo! Genuinely considering moving there for a few weeks or even a month just for the gyms!
@@AnnaHazelnutt I'm glad to hear it! I hope you can come back sometime for more :)
Well thought out and executed advertisement, very cool to be that well traveled 🤘🏼
For me, having a proper training area is essential if I'm ever going to sign up for a gym on the long term. For getting stronger of course, but also since I've been dealing with a recent wrist tendon injury, it's been so important to get warmed up correctly at a much lower weight than my bodyweight can provide.
Their gym looks really fun tho! I'm not sure if I'll ever be a ''comp climber'' but having so much variety can only do good
You could still warmup on some of the easier climbs. If most your weight is on your feet then you're a lot lower than bodyweight. You could also just use every hold available to warm up
I brought my bands to warm up a little, and then treated it like I would if I were climbing outside. I did some pulls on my Tindeq (use the code HAZELNUTT if you wanna get one #shamelessplug) and made sure to warm up on easier climbs. It was a bit odd not to have hangboards but there are definitely ways around it!
Sick video, Anna! I loved when you sent that dynamic jump into the catch, it was sick!
Also, no shot that black one is a V4, that's ridiculous. Japanese gradings seems wayy harder than western.
Japan uses a different grading system, and I'm not sure people put that much effort into accurately figuring out the equivalent V-scale grade… and add to that that even within the Japanese system, grades vary wildly from one gym to the next - to say nothing of outdoors, where everything seems at least 1-2 grades harder compared to the same grade indoors.
@@SachaGreif I climb at B-pump gyms and the supposed V-grades equivalencies are the ones the B-pump gyms have themselves on their grade chart. I'm not sure how they decided it, though, and as you say, the grades even within the Japanese grades can vary from gym to gym... (Ogikubo 4kyu is harder than Akihabara 4kyu.)
Yes! We also went to Akihabara and the grades were much different. Emile and I were able to climb much closer to our outdoor grade level (harder than V4 haha)
Awesome video Anna! I really want to climb at B-Pump at some point, it seems like its just my style haha
There's a bunch of different types of gyms in Tokyo, B-pump is like the top destination for comp climbers from around the world to come and train, Katzu Miyazawa, the owner (and Narasaki Tomoa coach) regularly organise competitions and comp simulation for pros! It's fascinating how open and accepting of everyone and willing to share their knowledge! But if you feel intimidated there, there are dozens of other, slightly easier gyms all over Tokyo, I've heard there are over 100 of them!
Yes! This gym seemed to be quite difficult whereas the other BPump we visited even had more accessible climbs and grading!
Halloween short story time with Anna, classic trope of the flashlight illuminating from underneath "... and the slabs... were all dynamic!"
japan bouldering is so good and i loved it when i was there. I would say the grades scaled similarly to us gyms you just have to convert v6 to like v2/3 and similarly to other boulders. but the boulders are all so good and interesting. hoping to go back one day!
and another factor too is the kids there are like ninjas. some of even those red tapes are so dynamic and committing if you are like 4'5 and these kids are attacking the big moves with such confidence. its so unlike the US and so refreshing
Such an excellent video
It’s super fun! Just put ego aside (and any expectation) and you’re sure to have a good time
In normally skip the ‘sponsor’ sections of videos but yours was actually quite funny, really working for the sponsorship 😆
mama needs her bread 😤
Oh u made B-pump ogikubo so fun! I've always wanted to try this place whenever I'm there but it's so scary too!
really enjoyed this one
There is also black tape holds at bpump (the infamous Black Tape), which is a 3d, and typically set for Yoshiyuki Ogata, Shion Omata, and other local World Cup climbers. Janja was there the other day forerunning the 2d (light green tape). =).
Sooo wild! I didn't even realize! What a cool gym.
That ad break was chef's kiss.
proud of you anna for pushing yourself outside of your static comfort zone!
Actually really liked the ad. Made me wanna check out the chalk bags
That gym looks sick! Dope video!
Great placement advert! Also, greetings from Yorkshire!
Some of the smaller gyms have so many climbs so close together that it can be very confusing! The B-Pump gyms were the only ones I found that were easy to understand from a European gym climber. One thing to mention is that you have to sign up to each gym (paying a new member fee) so it can be expensive if you want to have a quick session!
The Lead walls in Japan are where it's at! so good!
OMG where is the best lead facility??
@@AnnaHazelnutt very sadly Pump Osaka closed in 2020 and that was the best! But for other lead climbing places check out climbing bum in Osaka (seriously that’s its name haha) and then there’s Climb Park Base Camp which I think the god Yuji Hirayama owns!
@@MF-CLIMB Osaka is a bit far from Toky, but Pump 2, to me, has always been the best rope gym. However there is also a really great outdoor wall in Katsushika which I believe is run by the city itself.
That's some awesome setting!
And hard!😮
OMG I am so early here this time！ EXCITED!😍😍😍
You always have the best ads 😂
omg UHEUHEUHEUHE the video is amazing and the sponsorship part made me laugh so much
New found respect for Pewdiepie breaking through Japanese V4 after just a year of climbing.
He climbs in the softest gym, Noborock
He also claimed to be doing 500kg pullups. I wouldn't take too much notice of his claims, tbh
The chart they showed me when I was at bpump a few months ago converted white (3Q) to V4 and light blue (2Q) to V5/6, 1Q to V7 and 1D to V8/9 etc slightly less insane but still steep grading :)
Oh that's super interesting! I just used a conversion chart I found online
I love your videos! I have a video idea. Could you please make a video explaining how to read a route! It would help me lots.
first went to the b-pump in akihabara in 2015/2016 and then moved over to ogikubo and yeah, the whites are where it starts to get real, lol.
i love that their setting really focuses on technique, body positioning, and footwork, especially for even the easier routes - they're never just ladders. japanese route setters are anything but lazy in this regard. and the holds are sliiiiiiicks. there's like, no texture, which makes things even more difficult.
Came for the climbing, stayed for the shakuhachi lo-fi
Audio quality was too high to call it lo-fi
Paris is similar in that not many gyms have a decent training area. a V10 in SF is like a V5 in Tokyo hehe.
I believe there is another level at that gym, that´s just not displayed on their grade chart, which are the black tape boulders. (like the red one at 09:58 ) But that´s also supporting that they have more and harder problems or at least more options at that level
Oh I totally missed this! That makes sense, and wow that just puts the grades even more into perspective! We were getting shut down around halfway haha. So awesome to have a gym filled with this much difficult climbing
14:45 Albert Ok also has a great video talking about why Japanese climbers are so strong.
Hey Anna, if you ever come to Germany to do some sports climbing in Franconia you should definitely come visit the gym I work at (rockinn Wuerzburg) im sure I could arrange for you to be able to climb before/ after opening hours to make the filming easy ;) we have a lot of dynamic boulders and most of the time there are also 2-3 cracks on the wall, I have a couple of them uploaded on my second channel if you wanna see
I'd love to see Louis try this gym
bet your sponsor loooves the transition! it's cute
They're psyched
Very well made video, pacing is nice, climbing nice, humans nice. Good stuuuuuffff
The setting and difficulty looks great! It does look really dirty though. I wonder how often they reset or wash the holds.
They use Kyu and Dan for ratings just like in Go! So cool.
I've never seen someone have so much fun being shutdown! It's a cultural thing with Japanese boulders. They are strongest I have seen in general, it's got to be hard to set in gyms there!
I knew I had to have a shift in mindset for this gym, I was prepared! I think it really shows a cultural difference in how people react to getting shut down too. If this gym were in the states, I’m not sure people would handle it so well. But in Japan, everyone is just like “yup I got shut down, next!”
Not Japan, but I thought the slab lab at Mesa Rim was a cool example of progressive setting in many styles of slab...wasnt easy to do the whole set! I think the last time is was there they had 19 different slab boulders in the lab! also vet lucky to have some awesome challenging slab boulders at Vertical World (both) in the Seattle area.
I climb in Taiwan, it's the same thing. VERY dynamic.
daaaang so this what "v1 in my gym" thing looks like
Great video as usual, but god, best shirt ever 🎉
Cool video!
It’s a super large gym considering Tokyo real estate must be so expensive… I can understand the need to cram the walls full of holds to maximize space
I feel like anna's spirit animal on that pink (blue tag) slab is a mountain goat.
Interesting also that the density is so high. Is that just B-Pump or all Japanese gyms? I really think it makes it so much easier to project climbs and make easier/more challenging variations on various movements.
Definitely not all Japanese gyms. Some of the others we/I visited were more "normal" density (relative to what we're used to in the US). Totally agree though; high density gym sets is such a better approach.
I don’t care whether a grading system is hard or easy, as long as it is consistent and the gym has a nice variety of climbs for me. When switching to outdoors, it is nice to have an idea what you are able to climb, but there are always other climbers to ask.
I also agree, it was nice that within this gym the grading was consistent. Across the B-Pumps I found it not to be as consistent, and neither gym we went to was comparable to outdoors either haha. But I feel like after a few climbs anywhere, indoors or out, you get the idea and can recalibrate
16:58 ''the slabs are so hard and good'' - Anna Hazelnutt
looks like v9000 in my gym. great video!
The V grade translation seems a bit wrong, weird to be V0 for like 3 grades. 8-V0 7-V1 6-V3 or similar seems pretty reasonable
Actually, orange tape is the fourth hardest in this gym, the hardest is black which is not shown on the scale. I may also add that orange tape is around pro female world cup level.
Oh that’s interesting!! And that makes sense, the Orange tape climbs felt like my “project level” which is what I assume the incredibly strong women on the World Cup circuit are expected to flash 😅
Do you need the Rungne chalk bucket in order to time travel or can it be done with just the Magdust alone? I wanna see the eclipse again.
the kiu / dan system is common in for example Karate or the board game Go
Loved this video. So cool. Desperate to go to Tokyo and get completely shutdown now!
Cutting feet on v0 is wild
I hope you ate some ramen in Ogikubo, several great shops there
You guys contact me (local guide in Hiroshima, Japan) if you want to see how sandbagged the outdoors is! We got 5.13 slabs but the 5.10s are even more terrifying.
Don't even ask about the boulders sheesh
We bouldered outside! I actually didn’t find them too sandbagged! But Emile and I are used to Joshua tree grades so maybe we’re all just sandbaggers hehehe. Where is best to rope up outside in Japan?!
@@AnnaHazelnutt I can't wait to see where that is!
I can tell you that near Miyazaki in Mt. Hiei (比叡山) has a several multi pitches routes on a crag the local geezer climbers affectionately call: The Super Slab ! There isn't anything super difficult but it's 10 pitches of blank face wall
Japanese boulders aren't more difficult than anywhere else, the grades feel equivalent to Europe and the US. There's a reason V16 (or equivalent) is basically the max worldwide. No matter how sandbagged Japanese gyms might be, at some level they even out. It's not like you have the top Japanese climbers climbing things that nobody else can.
@@Mousehansen thank you for your response, yes, the grades do even out at the pro level, but that is beside the point here.
I've gathered opinions from climbers all over Europe and America and the general consensus from 5.13a and below the sport grades are about 4 grades sand bagged and the boulders are about 3.(In Hiroshima) The closer you get to Tokyo the less sandbagged it gets. Mitake is famous for being soft for Japan yet compared to Joshua Tree is only slightly sandbagged.
It looks like they are about 1 grade sandbagged compared to outdoor grades. Whereas the US gyms I have been to seem about 2 grades soft compared to outdoor grades. NZ gyms are also soft compared to outdoor grades.
I climb around v10 outdoors… and was climbing maybe v4 here. Feels like a bit of a stretch to say one grade sandbagged!
@@AnnaHazelnutt Sorry, I retract my silly comment :) Obviously looks can be deceiving :). I have only climbed V6 outdoors (and V7 indoors, whatever that means) so you would know a lot better than me! Everything I have seen on your channel suggests you are a fantastic climber. What I really meant was that my experience with North American gyms was that they are generally softly graded compared to outdoors,but that caused me to say something silly about Bpump!
Haha you're good! In fairness, that's only in my style! Maybe I'm more of a V8 climber outdoors in my antistyle (which is mainly what I experienced in this gym) haha. I do agree that North American gyms grade softer, but also what people forget is that outdoor climbing is a bit of a different sport. Most people mainly climb indoors, so they see that their indoor level is higher than their outdoor level. Since I climb a lot outdoors, I often find the reverse to be true for me (I climb harder grades outside!)
Didn't expect to hear Macaroom in the intro. 😮
How long do they keep these routes on the wall? The holds look grimy lol
I like B-PUMP Ogikubo. The best climbing gym in Tokyo!
I mean so long as the grades are consistent it doesn't really matter what the "translation" is to French or V. Like someone may say the 4-kyuu is a v1 but if all 4-kyuu's are the same difficulty and they are approximately as hard as a v7 / 7a then that's what the translation is, its not V1.
Yeah this video was a huge misinterpretation
I currently live in Japan, and all the B-pump gyms usually have a consistent grading (with Ogikubo being the hardest, around a grade harder than the one in Akihabara that I usually go to). But excluding B-pump, the difficulty varies greatly, with a lot of gyms being much softer, (People struggling with 5Kyu, 4Kyu at B-pump being able to do 1Kyu, 1D in other gyms), so a bit closer to US grading
@@stellar9553 For this video I used the confirmed and established conversion charts on the internet.
I have always wanted to go to Japan.
Hey Anna. Have you ever wanted to climb in Tasmania?
What kinda climbing is there? 👀
@@AnnaHazelnutt the answer really is “what kind of climbing ISN’T there?”😊
The state is famous for dolorite columns (some on sea cliffs) but climbing is quite varied because of different geology within a relatively small area.
And of course people come here for the stunning landscapes and other natural attractions.
We’d love to have you ❤️
woa, that chalk is impressive.
Have you tried some walls there? With selfbelaying maybe? I found just one in Tokio and it had just one device 😔
Autobelays are not common here. But if you want ropes, Pump 1 and Pump 2 have ropes.
@@Aaron-xq6hv I thought B-Pump is just boulders 😯 It is kinda hard to get ppl go to Japan and from this small group, even harder to go climbing, so rope isn't much usable for me.
@@MailoSvetel There are (currently), 5 Pumps, 3 of them are B-Pump since the B is bouldering, and there are 2 just called Pump, which are the original 2, and both have ropes.
Just a reminder that b pump has rental shoes
Ah so that's the gym where the V2 is that everyone is talking about;)
so what you’re saying is that they’re actually using the outdoors V grade correctly haha