It’s been nearly a week since I reached the cape and in that time I’ve travelled south to Hakodate, a journey that took 22 days on foot.
It’s still the rainy season up here so while the rain alternates between light-drizzle and heavy-monsoon there are occasional breaks of scorching heat making dressing for the day […]

[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 →]

Day 94 and I’m on the northern most coast of Japan. I have seen the peninsula that I’ll be walking along a couple of days from now but the cape is out of sight until the last few kilometres.
 
The feeling of non-Japan, or maybe the lack of Japanese feeling continued today. For the 35km that […]

[Read more →]

The town of Nakagawa was still asleep when I passed through just before 5am. There were clouds still sitting on the low hills that create this valley but the sky was starting to clear. For 10 hours I walked without taking a break. There was nowhere but the roadside to sit and I had no […]

[Read more →]

The day started, that is the daylight part of today, hours before that I’d woken to see clouds rolling over the hills in darkness, with a hearty breakfast courtesy of Barabara’s campsite neighbour Sato-san (not to be confused with the Sato-san I met at Takochi-dake Onsen). A light salad, chunky vegetables in a thick sauce […]

[Read more →]

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, […]

[Read more →]

When pointing out one’s self in a conversation, for example “I am going to buy this”, the Japanese point to their faces, or more exactly their noses, while westerners point to their chests.
 
A long and winding descent from Asahidake Onsen this morning. The weather was good and I briefly considered taking the cable-car back up […]

[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 →]

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 […]

[Read more →]

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 […]

[Read more →]