So one day I went for a walk...

Tonight is my last night in Japan. I am sitting in my capsule bunk awash in souvenirs and gifts, figuring out how to pack it all into my limited baggage space. Normally I am pretty conservative when it comes to buying touristy things on a trip, but I have surprised myself on this occasion. I suppose being outside the norm was the entire purpose of this trip, so I have definitely embodied that with all the little trinkets I have bought for friends and family back home. One of a bajillion trinkets I have to find space for in my bag! I wasn't sure how I would feel to reach the end of the trip, and perhaps tomorrow I will feel differently once I reach the airport.  But right now I am looking forward to headed out and making my way home.  I feel very satisfied by my trip, by what I have accomplished and what I have learned.   Inside I can feel the mechanism of personal change slowly working, and outside I can see some more apparent changes as well. My l...

I have 5 days left in Japan, to be spent in Tokyo specifically.  Having been in this city for a little over a week already I have had the chance to explore a fair deal of the city, and to no ones surprise I have found it to be exceptionally busy. Everywhere. All the time. I'm used to the idea of places having peak periods. Restaurants, stores, subways all getting busy at certain times of the day. Here, what I would consider peak activity in most other cities in have lived in or visited is merely the baseline. There is a good reason for this sense of hustle and bustle; Tokyo is the biggest city in the world, with 38 million people living here. To put that into perspective, the entire population of my home nation, Canada, is 37.5 million people. One of many exits to Shinjuku station, at 11am on a Sunday morning. At times this sort of density can be intense, and other times it can be frustrating. But for the most part I have simply adjusted to the flow of life here, and ...

These last few days in Tokyo have been extremely restful, but also challenging in the pursuit of that rest. It seems that walking constantly for a few straight months sets a subconscious rhythm, one that even when the music has stopped my body wants to keep moving to. Despite my many pains, and a desire to rest for their sake, I have found it hard to actually do so. Each morning I tell myself I am going to just stay in bed that day, relax and do as little as possible.  By the end of the day I have walked at least 12km. In part Japanese cities and walking go together like government and corruption, you can't have one without the other it would seem.  So even just the act of going somewhere nearby typically can draw me into more walking than I planned on. But also, I am simply fighting to feel comfortable not being constantly on the move. Even when I was taking off days on the trail, I was still exploring the place I found myself extensively. I would walk nearly as much...

It is late and and I am sitting in my bunk in the heart of Tokyo.  I have officially trekked from Osaka to Tokyo, loosely following the Tokaido road from history.  It took me 10 weeks, with lots of stops along the way. It has been a long, surprising and complicated journey.  By my rough math I have walked over 1000 kilometers, with about half coming from the trail itself, and the other from the constant exploration I was compelled to do on my off days. Hell, I'd walked over 150km before I even left Osaka. But, here I am. So many roads and places behind me. So many days of physical and mental pains. So many chance discoveries and new friends made along the way. I'm not sure how I thought I would feel when I got here, but depressed wasn't on the list of guesses. I had hoped that I would feel happy, or a sense of accomplishment after such a long and difficult challenge, but I am mostly just bummed out as it feels like the end of something great. There is still a lo...

It is November the twelfth, two thousand and nineteen. I am now 39 years old. Today was a brilliant day, quite literally, as there was hardly a cloud to be seen for miles. It was also my birthday. I stopped looking forward to my birthday a long time ago, as they became ever more depressing affairs. Not because of the fact that I was getting older, that doesn't bother me.  But rather that a life spent moving from place to place in pursuit of a career leaves little in the way of friends nearby to celebrate with.  It's extremely depressing when you have a small group of friends to begin with, then none of them show up to the party.  It's a good reason to shy away from festivities. This year however my birthday happened while on this adventure. Something that was most certainly not a coincidence.  It is significantly harder to be disappointed in a birthday when you find yourself in a place and state like this. ... I have dedicated a not insignificant amount of ...

Last night I slept poorly, the sort of sleep that has you feeling like you laid there awake all night, even though I know that wasn't truly the case. Perhaps it was the new and unfamiliar sleeping arrangements that kept me from a deep sleep, or perhaps it was a lingering concern about my hike today. When I booked my room, it was chosen out of financial responsibility rather than convenience or good location, as Saturday nights are stupid hard to book for. I ended up in a stylish Ryokan a few kilometers inland from the Yugawara coastline, snuggly set up a steep side street. When I made the booking I was entirely focused on the price, and didn't pay much attention to the amenities. Upon checking in I was happily surprised to discover that my stay included a breakfast. So after a soak in the onsen I tucked in early for my 8am breakfast appointment (you have to pick a time, you can't just roll up whenever you'd like). Breakfast was a traditional Japanese style...