Tomiko Itooka, the oldest verified living person who loved mountaineering

Tomiko Itooka was born on May 23, 1908 as the eldest of three children. She got married at twenty and became a mother of two daughters and two sons. During the war, she took over the textile factory that her husband owned in South Korea. After her husband’s death, in 1979, while living alone in Nara Prefecture in western Japan, Itooka became interested in mountaineering.

When Tomiko Itooka was in her 70s, she scaled Japan’s 3,067-metre Mount Ontake, which is the 14th highest mountain in the world, in sneakers instead of hiking boots. Located on Honshu Island in Japan, Mount Ontake, or Ontakesan, is a stratovolcano, and it’s one of Japan's active volcanoes. Mount Ontake is popular among hikers and pilgrims due to its spiritual significance in Buddhism and Shinto.

The supercentenarian surprised everyone again when she walked up the long stone steps of Japan’s Ashiya Shrine without using a cane, at the age of 100 in 2019. Itooka moved to a nursing home, after which she resorted mostly to wheelchairs for moving around.

Every morning Tomiko has Calpis, a non-carbonated soft drink in Japan. It's a light, somewhat milky, and slightly acidic flavour. The ingredients include water, dry milk, and lactic acid.

At the age of 116, Tomiko Itooka from the western Japanese city of Ashiya officially became the oldest woman in the world. The Ashiya city authorities released the pictures from Tomiko’s birthday celebration since she became the oldest verified living person after the death of 117-year-old Maria Branyas of Spain.