During his spare time in Japan, Gowland enjoyed mountaineering, making the first recorded ascent on several peaks of the Japanese Alps, a name which Gowland coined and which was published in 1888 by Basil Hall Chamberlain in his Japan Guide. The name was later popularised by English missionary Walter Weston. Gowland also claimed to have been the first foreigner to have climbed Yarigatake in 1874.