This is the second time I’ve been to Kyoto this year and I’ve covered a mix of familiar and new things.
Nijo castle, apparently the site of my first steps some 27 years ago, is still looking fine surrounded by its carp-filled moat. The floor still squeaks there, but since my last visit I’ve found [...]

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My previous visit to Koya-san was just a day trip. Lorraine and I took in the Kobo Dashi mausoleum and the graveyard and left. This time, thanks to a generous gift from her mum, Tania and I stayed the night in one of the 52 temple lodgings that crowd the town. We saw the lantern [...]

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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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From the road station called Toma at Pippu I walked 12 hours north to one near the town of Nayoro. I saw four small shrines, notable because Hokkaido doesn’t have as many as the other islands since it only became part of Japan relatively recently.
I think someone offered me a lift today, or they [...]

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I’ve spotted a few things that are different on this most northernly island and I thought I’d share them with you. The convenience stores all have Snickers. Since the only other energy-bar type thing I’ve found is SoyJoy (very tasty but not enough in it) the presence of Snickers is a great thing. Some of [...]

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The storm hit early this morning and when two pegs got blown out at 6am my tent collapsed and I figured it was time to leave. The weather improved enough to stow the umbrella and a few hours later I was at Osorezan. On the way I’d been offered a lift by a friendly Japanese [...]

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I didn’t sleep well at all. Solid wooden benches and bright lights tend to have that effect on me. The sky was cloudy and it looked like it was still raining further down the valley. I only felt a few drops all day but it felt like it could arrive at any time.
 
My thighs were [...]

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Tonight I sleep about 997km (in a straight line) from Cape Soya, and I’m very pleased about that. Passing the half-time mark a few days ago has given me another reason to evaluate my progress thus far. Tania said of her big walk for Oxfam last year that halfway was really hard. Already in pain, [...]

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I left my solitary confinement and was glad to remove the ear plugs I had worn all night. Recently I’ve been feeling a continuous low frequency hum and stuffing things in my ear canal is unlikely to help. As predicted it had started raining over night and continued all the way to Nagano. By then [...]

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I made three very good decisions today. First I went to the point in the river that Charles had told me about. I never actually decided to get in but I kept getting closer, took off (most of) my clothes and got wet (and very cold), all the while composing an apology to Charles saying [...]

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