Last night’s last arrival was the first riser this morning, and his tent was next to mine. For two hours starting not long after 2am I heard him stomp back and forth across the flattened earth, echoing through my tent as if we were on a metal plate. He cooked, he brushed his teeth, he [...]

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I’ve seen a lot of good scenery. I lived amongst it for 5 months last year and I’ve just discovered another truly awe-inspiring place.
It rained in the night and I wasn’t looking forward to the first few hours of pushing through wet bamboo and pine brush. Isoda cheered me up by giving me one of [...]

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I thought I’d be the first up the hill today but a bus-load of keen and young-at-heart hikers were dropped off at 4am and soon got going. I was 30mins behind them until I got confused at the first sign. One way was to a mountain I didn’t want, the other to one I didn’t [...]

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I’m in the car park of Tokachi-dake Onsen roughly 1,000m above where I started today. I became a brief talking point when I met three girls leaving the onsen building and was polite enough to stand back and let them pass by saying “dozo” in the Japanese way. I was having trouble talking because of [...]

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On the PCT, if you’re carrying the Data Book and reading ahead, you are able to tell when a waterless stretch of trail is coming and make sure you’re carrying enough to get through. I don’t have that luxury here and thus I walked about 40km on less than 1.5L, and it was hot. Luckily [...]

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Multiple failures of fairly critical items have plagued my day. My shoes have been wearing out for a while. The lop-sided heels show I’ve been waking in pavement for too long and dragging my feet most of that time. I had to buy new headphones in Sapporo because my old iPod ones were only playing [...]

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Not much done today, which a good thing because I’ve a long way to go and I needed some recovery time from the last stretch. I’ve plotted a route, guesstimated distances, packed my food and charged all my devices. Everything is set and soon I’ll heading east to the mountains, my last off-roading before racing [...]

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First order of the day was getting my Alien Registration Card. At the ward office I presented the forms that showed I tried to do this in Kyoto and Otaya but this caused more trouble. It seems you have to de-register in your old area first before re-registering in your new place. With Richard helping [...]

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For a town day I was pretty slow at breaking camp, but once I was moving I moved fast, pausing only to check emails and buy more food as I went. I skirted around Sapporo itself and eventually came to the house of Richard and Masako Hopkins. Many years ago Richard lived across the road [...]

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Throughout the night I heard footsteps nearby as Okura-san continued his rounds, checking everything was still safe. Somehow I managed to sleep through the time he got close enough to leave a note on my tent peg.
“Ganbare!! Gureisu!! by your friend Kura”
Which I think translates as “Do well Craig!!”
 
Three more police stops on the way [...]

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