Despite Rigatoni’s pleas we decided to go to Las Vegas. I can see his point, it’s not a pretty part of humanity, but it is fascinating and worth a look. We drove straight to The Stratosphere hotel which was pretty easy, given its dominance over the skyline.
 
As is traditional in sin city Las Vegas, access [...]

[Read more →]

For the past few days we have had the good fortune to stay with friends near the Rocky Mountains. An amazing landscape of mind boggling size and eye-popping beauty.
 
First port of call was Boulder to visit Levi, Sarah and bunny #3 who is expected to make her appearance on Halloween. Also visiting them were Dominique [...]

[Read more →]

A.k.a. Internal combustion engine FTW (that’s For The Win).
In just 3 days we’ve driven from San Francisco, CA to Boulder, CO, which is a long way. It’s a good thing that I’m trying to show Tania some cool places I know otherwise I’d probably have driven faster and seen less. Our first stop was Sonora [...]

[Read more →]

Though I had thought of moving to Japan for many years, and I did a long distance hike last year. It wasn’t until I heard of ‘Kintaro Walks Japan’ that I thought of putting my two interests together. Kintaro, or Tyler as he’s known in real life, was inspired by Ayumi whose dad still holds [...]

[Read more →]

By chance we happened to be passing by Matsumoto (and thus Charles and Yuko who I saw at my half-way point two months ago) during a festival. As the rather repetitive song explained it was “bon bon Matsumoto, bon bon bon!”. Played on a loop through loud speakers it got the parade of groups ranging [...]

[Read more →]

Nikko has to be seen to be believed. Founded hundreds of years ago and kept active ever since, there are so many shrines and large temples that it kept fast walkers like us busy all day. We got there before the tour buses and appreciated the calm before the storm of school children that had [...]

[Read more →]

Sukayu onsen, in the hills north of Lake Towada, is sometimes referred to as ‘the 1000 person bath’. A slight exaggeration I think but the hotel it is part of could certainly hold that many. It’s an old building of long creaky hallways and winding staircases creating a confusing labyrinth that makes following the receptionist’s [...]

[Read more →]

More grey skies this morning, but the rain held off. With fresh supplies from the nearest Seicomart convenience store (of which Wakkanai probably has 200), Tania and I started the 30km walk north east along the coast to Cape Soya. The wind was against us the whole way, with shelter provided in the half-dozen small [...]

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]