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 [...]

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The most interesting part of today was not that I’ve been rained on for the seventh day running. It’s not that I considered this a ’short’ day at only 38km nor that I’ve got shin-splints and the other shoulder of my favourite hiking shirt is starting to rip. Staying at Nayoro road station was interesting, [...]

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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’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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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 [...]

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Today was to be another Zero Day but I clocked up some miles with a few tasks so it’s just another Town Day, but less frantic than most. My first target was the Bamboo Creative Art Museum which turned out be closed. There were no signs stating why but Chris reckons it’s what they do [...]

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People were already walking past our tent before 6am so Chris and I made an early start. Up over the saddle and down towards Beppu. It took a really long time but was helped by fair weather and a friendly traffic control guy. There were two of them letting traffic flow one way at a [...]

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Imagine my surprise when I started researching how to get to my starting pointing at Cape Sata and discovered FourCornersOfJapan.net. This year two Australians are also walking the length of Japan and I may very well get to meet them on the trail. Chris and Ian are friends but are not walking [...]

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