Tonight I am about 42km from where I stayed last night, in a quiet mountain town on the shore of Lake Towada. After more emails and more food I set off from Kazuno at quite a pace. 7:30am is pretty late for me so I was trying to make up for it and trying to [...]

[Read more →]

After an early morning dash to see sunrise over the valleys it was a long downhill to the onsen and the road. I passed a marker for the 40 degree line, I think it was 36 on the marker I saw at Sata. I prefer kilometers, those numbers change faster.
 
For a few weeks I’ve been [...]

[Read more →]

For most of this morning I thought today was just about the distance. Putting my head down and getting it done. The walk was pleasant. Soon reaching the Tamagawa Dam view point where I charged some things and dried out others. After a while the view of the man-made lake disappeared and with dense forest [...]

[Read more →]

I was packed and walking by 4:30am but managed to wisely put those extra daylight hours into resting (and charging my electronics, and working on my tan). I also wasted some by missing tiny little roads that show up on my map but really need to be marked as tracks. The first was described as [...]

[Read more →]

Taking the smaller roads meant a three hour walk to the first store to buy breakfast. The lady in charge spoke better English than my Japanese and she help point out where the samurai houses were in Kakunodate and that the lake just north of town has a beautiful statue of Princess Tatsuko.
As I was [...]

[Read more →]

Last night’s site was a very good choice. Soft ground and no condensation, it was quiet apart from the occasional pheasant or rabbit wandering by. It got light at 4am but I stayed put for a while after that. Eventually moving on to spend time and battery power trying to call home only to find [...]

[Read more →]

You may have heard about an earthquake in Japan today. It wasn’t far away and may have been around 4.0 where I was. At about 8:45 I was recording a bit on my camera saying “nothing else around here is swaying so I guess it’s just a dizzy spell”. It probably was, but I’d be [...]

[Read more →]

Today falls neatly into three parts. First I had to improve the waterproofing on my tent, so I needed silicone gel and stuff to mix/spread it with. Given that the hardware store is within 100m you’d think this would be easy. First we had to talk our way in before the store was officially open. [...]

[Read more →]

I feel like I’ve met a lot of Sakata today. Or rather they have heard of me. As Masami showed me around Haguro-san and its pleasant forest walk to a 600+ year old pagoda he spoke to quite a few people about me and my adventure. I’m still not good enough to understand everything that [...]

[Read more →]

With no reason to stay I was on the road and heading north well before 5am. The distance seemed to drag on and on and the last few kilometers took forever, but finally I reached the coordinates of Masami’s postcode and called him up. He’s my neighbour’s friend and has been doing the lion’s share [...]

[Read more →]