It rained all day. I walked a silly distance and for a long time I was planning to walk until midnight just to reach the safety of Gillian’s apartment. The Dri-Ducks (water proof trousers and jacket) that Potential 178 gave me last year have seen better days. They leak slowly but with 10 hours on my feet the water adds up and I was soaked to the bone when I stumbled into Plaza business hotel. Now my stuff is drying and I’m get wet again courtesy of the bath tub.
 
The most confusing part of the day was asking at a Sun-Kus convenience store for any cheap local hotels. The clerk disappeared for ages and came back with a very basic hand drawn map. Two roads, one turn. The first road was just outside and 2-3kms later was the turn. Then 5-6kms down that road was a hotel. I thanked him but said I couldn’t possibly walk that far. So he shortened the estimate and suddenly the hotel was 2-3kms from the junction. If only physics actually bent to our desires. I asked again next door at the petrol station and they suggested one directly on my route.

And I got an email from Gillian, something about a typhoon. I was beginning to wonder.
 
Word of the day: nu-re-te i-ru = wet

f I wasn’t already awake the dawn chorus would have done it. I could pick out six separate songs above the general chatter of the other birds. The sky was pale grey but held no imminent threat of rain so I set off up the trail. And when I say up I mean the most ridiculously steep trail ever! In the toughest parts some kind soul had installed ropes and I hauled myself up to the crest puffing and panting like never before. That was around 10am.

 
From there the trail had its ups and downs eastward. I hadn’t seen anyone for a while and I wondered what I’d do if I did. I imagined I’d smile, so smile I did at the imaginary person and then narrated the scene to myself.

Yes the voices are back. Today mostly featured emails I’d write and wonderings on my future. Where I’ll go, what I’ll do and when I’ll finish this crazy walking thing. Logistics are back too. Estimating distance left, average speed etc. I might be able to finish by my birthday if I have covered 1000km (I haven’t) and can average 35km per day (doubtful). This is what occupies my brain when trying not to worry about the clouds that were forming over Tsurugi-san, my goal.

It got colder in the afternoon, and the sky was darker. Tsurugi-san shook off the clouds and I made a dry descent to the pass. Very hungry and out of water I treated myself to a large bowl of udon noodles. Well I planned to. I sat and talked with the only other customer explaining myself as usual. When asked why I was attempting such “risky” thing I told him “Japan is interesting. Cars are too fast. Speaking with people is interesting” though I suspect that last part was horribly mangled by bad grammar and tense. When he left he bought two cream buns and placed one in front of me. The manager told me he’d paid for my udon too. A little bit of trail magic to end my day. I’m now camped on the bottom of a two story car-park. I hear it’ll rain tomorrow but I might as well start out dry.

Word of the day: kyu-na = steep

Distance today: 30km
 

I left the school grounds early and headed east. Where 439 branched off I sighed at the 18km I had until the pass. It took me all morning and wasn’t particularly interesting.

At the one-room coffee house at the pass I got the owner to confirm there was a trail leading to a pass that features right in the corner of my hiking map. I had guessed there would be but didn’t want to head out without checking. Passing the yellow bears-are-here sign I went straight up the ridge and above the treeline. Another great crest walk for me! Some parts involved pushing through waist high bamboo and doing the uphill makes it chest high and quite an effort. I almost got lost at Yahazu peak but a little back-tracking showed me a clear trail to the pass where I am camped. Next to another bear warning.
       
I stood on the edge of the clearing listening to the forest. Woodpeckers pecking, birds singing and trees creaking in the wind. No growls yet but I doubt I’ll get much sleep tonight.

Word of the day: kuma = bear

Distance today: 33km
 

This morning’s walk was long and slow. Plodding along beside the growing river that became a lake above the dam. The hills are all covered in greenery. It wasn’t until I visited Egypt that I really appreciated how fertile New Zealand, and now Japan, really is. I think this is from “Bilbo’s song”

in every hill, in every glen,
there is another shade of green

I dropped down to route 439 and got some long overdue chocolate and a small pack of sweet strawberries. As I walked the simmering road I stopped to admire the sign “Mojoyama Mississippi” and heard a man calling me over. Fuji he called himself, short for Fujishima meaning Wisteria. In his early 50s, he had a greying goatee and a buzz cut up top. I was invited to take a rest outside his art studio/cafe and we got talking. He’s travelled quite a bit, including a while in New Zealand back when he was married to a Kiwi. Andy Kershaw played his blues music on Radio 1 and he busked around Europe for a while. He certainly had an energy going and it was good to speak in English. After a peppermint tea and hearing a few Japanese swear words as he burnt his fingers on the pot, I was off into the heat again. It’s like summer here and I’m going to start enjoying siestas soon.
 
Further and further I went. I restocked at a supermarket and my bag is bulging despite only carrying 3 days of food. Some may make fun of American food being fatty but I really appreciate it being so calorie-laden. Last year I crammed a week of supplies into the same space.

It was getting late as I stood by the road considering asking at a house if I could camp in their garden. A car pulled over and I did a double-take as Leslie, the first pale face I’ve seen in a while, asked if I needed a lift. I had to decline but he did set me up with a place to stay. As the local JET he knows a few people and drove ahead to check with Okamoto-san if I could stay at his village’s closed school. If I’d been smarter I would have gotten him to take my bag ahead too. Slack packing is the best gift I can get right now. Besides food, shelter or bionic legs.

So I’m sleeping in a large room of an old school. I’ve got water, electricity and toilets which are home to the largest living spider I’ve ever seen.

Word of the day: gak-ko = school

Distance today: 46km

Leaving Shirasa minshuku was a good experience. Not because I wanted to go elsewhere but because the staff came right out to the road to say goodbye. We goofed around getting photos and one lady asked if it was ok to upload to the web. I agreed and gave her my hiker card with this blog’s address on it. It’s got a picture of me hiking in Washington so I explained that and got some gasps. The manager asked in Japanese
“Last year Mexico to Canada. This year all of Japan?”
“Yes. And next year I want to buy a car”
That’s not quite true but how often can you tell jokes in other languages? 

The morning’s walk was the best so far. Right on the crest and a cloudless day. At first I was pushing through thigh-high wet bamboo leaves but soon the trail cleared and I got moving faster. I reached several peaks but my favourite was Me-yama. From there I could see Ishizuchi-san with its temple perched on top. To the north the land slid away to the plains and beyond that the towns in the inland sea. I could even see islands out there. South of me were more mountains than you can shake a chopstick at right in the middle was this glorious crest.
 
Unfortunately I was low on food so I had to come down (sometimes very steeply) to the valley from the pass I reached at midday. It was a long descent but my iPod helped. Another Japanese lesson and other bunch of songs to sing to as I walked. I’m now cowboy camping in a short tunnel on the long abandoned old road opposite route 17. I’ve eaten my last pot noodle and have just three bags of horrible salty nut-like things and some boiled sweets. I should be about 10 km from a town so I’ll get breakfast there, if I don’t eat whatever is rustling the bushes over there.

Word of the day: shi-ta e = down

Distance today: 40km

I can hear it roaring up the hill towards me. Rushing through the bamboo. I brace for impact as the mighty wind shakes my nylon house and the rain falls inside. I’ve been watching the puddles form on the roof for a while and can see where my seams are not sealed. Outside the tempest snarls while I try to find a way to fit around the leaks. Solitary confinement, that’s what I’m in. Waiting for a long enough pause to get my tent down and rush for the cafe/guest house not far away. It’s only 8am but I think I might take a W.I.E.R.D. (Weather Induced Extra Rest Day). Maybe watching some of those crazy local TV shows. Maybe befriend the chef and put on some weight. Once again I can place a board between my hips and it not touch my stomach.

9am came and I put my escape plan into action. My bag was already packed and I was dressed in full wet weather gear. I rushed it over to the BBQ shelter where a family were still in their tent tucked under cover behind the sinks. The space between the two shelters, where I almost set up my tent, was an inch deep with water. This is the first time I’ve packed my tent up while it’s raining and I did a good job of it. Unfortunately I was to discover later that the bag it goes in is not waterproof and was leaving a puddle wherever it lay.

I ran the 100m to the road and then the minshuku, and that’s as far as I reached. For three hours I hung out in the lobby watching the rain die down only to be replaced by dense fog hurling itself at the expansive windows. I finally justified the cost of a room and meals (¥8300, the most I’ve ever paid for accommodation) by spreading over the times I haven’t paid anything. Tomorrow I can get off the mountain and maybe east of here it’ll be better.
 
After a proper Japanese bath I was ready for dinner. I was seated with Yoichita-san and immediately complemented for using chopsticks. “My mother really liked Japan” I replied and so I stretched my Japanese as far as I could. The waitresses were more than happy to talk to me, Yoichita-san would use their presence to rehash something we’d just discussed and they’d often apologise to him for being seated with someone who can’t talk. I think the biggest confusion was over my job. I tried telling him that I don’t know what I’ll do or where I’ll live. But ‘don’t know’ and ‘don’t understand’ are the same here. The next time a girl passed he asked her to help and she got it straight away. “You’re free!” she said. I liked her and when I was left to eat alone (I stayed on to cram in my 7th bowl of rice) she came back to talk more. No older than 25 she liked to travel and ski. If the clientele tonight are a standard group I’d say she doesn’t have much in common with them.

Holy cow, you’d think I was writing a book for a day I did nothing! Anyway I’m inside, clean, my stuff is drying in the boiler room and I am stuffed full with rice.

Word of the day: fu-ro = bath

I’ve had a glorious day climbing Ishizuchi-san and I wish some of you could have been here to enjoy it with me. Maybe you wouldn’t have liked the 5:30am start, or the 1400m vertical gain, but you could have driven most of it like everyone else did and still gotten the views.

I’m so happy to have had some nice trail to walk on. Rolling Thunder let me know of the western route though he could also have been referring to one that comes from road 494. Parts were incredibly steep, parts were on horizontal ladders spanning gullies and rounding rocky outcrops and parts of it were (minor) snow crossings. All of it was great.

The last few hundred metres were metal staircases. At the top there was quite a big building through the windows of which I saw bunks. I had enough time to make it there yesterday, assuming my legs could have taken it, and a sunrise there will be something I’ll regret missing. I continued along the razor sharp ridge, vertical drop to the north, almost as steep to the south. Not many people know that I am terrified of heights. Well not heights as much as the ground accelerating up towards me at 10 meters per second per second as if I’d just fallen off a mountain. Why then do I walk, scramble and eventually crawl to the very edge of such mountains so often? Who knows, but I did it again today.

Back on a more solid setting I was out of water and too cheap to buy the ¥500 ($6.50 NZD) bottles at the top. I ate some clean snow on the way down and spent a while at the trailhead.

Soon afterwards I was lost in a bamboo forest, and when I found myself the going wasn’t much easier. For anyone considering Lonely Planet’s Hiking in Japan’s route from Tsuchi-goya to Yosakoi-toge I seriously recommend the road. It’s overgrown and a nightmare to get through. From Yosakoi-toge north to Shiraza-toge it’s fine, and that’s where I am now. It’s been sunny all day but clouds came in from the east so the peaks have been hidden from view. I’m hoping for a dry day tomorrow.

Word of the day: tow-re-mas = fall

Distance today: 21km

I know that for a long distance hiker, or really anyone over the age of 8, I am a pretty impatient person. So you’ll be surprised to find out that since I put my bag down shortly before 2pm I haven’t picked it back up again despite being within 7km of the summit of Ishizuchi Mountain, the highest in western Japan.

The day started in mist but as I stepped out from under the temple roof I could see the clouds were thin and the peaks around me were above them. Over the next few kilometers they dissipated and I was left walking the road on a glorious sunny day. I saw Tetsuya pass me on the bus and wave. It sure looked like an easy way to travel and all the motorbikes passing me make me think of faster times. But I’m trying not to hurry.
       
A cyclist in full racing lycra shot by and I waved hello. He circled back and the conversation went like this. In Japanese.
“Do you understand Japanese?”
“A little”
“In three kilometers ???????????”
“Three kilometers understood. I’m sorry I don’t understand”
“Three kilometers. Teatime?”
 Confused look from me
“Guard rail” (he said that in English)
“Ahhhh” more confused looks
“ok, bye”
“Bye”

If you know what that means you’re doing better than I was. But it became clear when 3km later I saw his bike against the guard rail and he came out to meet me offering cold cans of beer and coffee. Takashi-san had ridden from his home in Matsuyama to his holiday home in the valley east of Ishizuchi ahead of his wife and three children who would soon be coming by car. He’s a triathloner (triathelete?) and had run a marathon before so he sympathises with physical exertion. See, I’m learning quite a bit.

Soon the valley became narrower and I entered the Omogo Gorge. After some confusing times trying to establish where the hiking track was, and explaining that yes a bus is easier but I want to walk, I found myself staring at a near vertical stone staircase straight out of Indiana Jones. Twisted vines, a shrine halfway up it. The last guy I spoke to said 7 hours. The old me would have taken that as a challenge but today I am pretending to be smarter. In truth I’ll just try to beat that time tomorrow. I felt like a lemon so I went looking for a river that felt like a martini to dip myself in. Unfortunately dip was all I could do. It was freezing and I’ve no need to go burning calories just keeping warm. So I washed my clothes and lay on the rocks for a while. Composed rhyming-couplets and listened to another Japanese lesson.

 
Tomorrow I make a dash for the summit. The earlier I can start the better because I’d love to see the clouds from above before they burn away.

Word of the day: ma-chi-mas = wait

(apologies to Douglas Adams for stealing his joke)

Distance today: 29km

I spent the day as a pilgrim on the henro trail. It was a rewarding mix of roads, steep trails and fascinating temples. My first human interaction came from the little old shop lady who brought me a cup of tea. The second from a car-pilgrim who, dressed in white and with his kasa (straw hat) on the back seat, stopped to give me an orange. The third was a driver who offered me a lift and met me with a blank stare when I said I was heading for Hokkaido on foot. A little while later I spoke to two female pilgrims resting at a sign and was asked to pose with them when I explained my plan. As I powered on up the hill I heard them chattering away with that lovely drawn out surprised tone the Japanese have. “Reeeaaaaaally?” “Wooooooow!”

The temple itself, number 44 for those doing the whole route, was a familiar affair. I’m not a believer so I left those that cared do their ceremonies in peace and heading up the hill to the next one. The path stayed in the woods a lot. Much steeper than any of the PCT, I was covered in sweat and breathing hard, and it was good. My feet were no longer met by the slap of concrete but by the soft thud of duff, the cracking of twigs and the rustle of leaves. And it was good. At the first pass I let the wind dry the sweat on my forehead. Crispy to the touch, I felt at home again. I don’t make any claim to be a real mountain man, living off the land and all that, but I feel good when I reach the top with my heart racing and deserve the water I carried there.

Along the way I met Tetsuya Nakamura (Te-chan to his buddies like me). My conversations have been limited but held entirely in Japanese. I learned he is also heading to Ishizuchi-san, but using the bus. He could at least show me the road and a trail leading up. He says it’s 40k but my estimate is less than 20.

The descent into temple 45 was a maze of winding tracks strung between statues and shrines embedded in cliff faces and under tree roots. The biggest housed a 3 meter fiery red deity complete with golden lotus flowers and offerings of sake. Tonight I’m sleeping on the porch of a small shrine in the town below 45. I face the confusing task of resupplying for a trek I have no idea about. What food will be up there? How long will I be up there? Don’t know. But to the mountains I must go.

Word of the day: henro = pilgrim

Distance today: 36km

The plan worked and no-one asked me to leave. I snuck out at 6:30am and hit the road. East again, it’ll be the same right across Shikoku. More long tunnels, more busy roads. I generally didn’t enjoy this morning but I did get a lot of eating done. I even found a proper pint of ice-cream!

At the big supermarket I met my first pilgrim. He wasn’t dressed in white or wearing a straw hat. But he had the stick and bell and he was walking. I saw more later, all going anti-clockwise. There were two cyclists going my way, one gave me sweets, and a pair of English teachers hitch-hiking for charity.
       
The overcast sky and (many) early lunches made it seem much later in the day. Plus my pack was weighed down with supplies so I was more tired than normal. Did I explain earlier that I plan to do the full 88 temple tour with my girlfriend Tania next year? Well days like this make me change my mind. Walking through urban areas is not fun. I prefer mountains and rivers (hence my Iya Valley route). So why put myself through it again?

Struggling on I finally started seeing ‘henro no michi’ (pilgrim’s route) signs. They lead me up route 379 in a little valley where the houses were once again wooden with curly grey slate tiles and sliding doors. I like this side of Japan a lot. It did present a camping problem though, no space. I saw a nicely cut area of grass, big enough for a tennis court, and asked two locals if it’d be alright to put up a tent. They said not to bother, just around the corner is a free place for pilgrims. Or something to that effect, my Japanese is mostly interpreting their gestures.

Sure enough I found the shelter. A raised eight-tatami complete with shrine, trail register and cupboard full of futons. The lady from the little shop across the road talked to me for a while. I understood very little but I tried. She brought me a bowl of hot udon noodles and told me the shelter is 85 years old.
       
So my mind is changed again. If this is normal and the shelters are well spaced, I can see us coming back next year. And I’ll bring the lady a gift too.

Word of the day: higashi = east

Distance today: 41km