So one day I went for a walk...

Yesterday I set out from Shizuoka, leaving behind me the ongoing festivities of the Daidogei street performance world cup and headed towards Fuji. Originally I had intended to break the trip to Fuji into two shorter walks, as the route was 35km long in a best case scenario. I am deeply appreciative of how much physical progress I have made over these past two months of walking, but I know that 35km in a single day is beyond me, both physically and logistically (the sun sets so early in the day now). However my plan to divide the journey in two was thwarted by an inability to find a place to stay, or locate a reasonable looking site to camp.  Along the coast to Fuji the terrain is very hilly at the best of times, so what little ground that might be good for camping was long ago developed. With this in mind I found a hostel in Fuji that was available, booked myself in, and devised a new plan. The route to Fuji would first be through a very urban section, about 10km long, be...

Today was my last idle day on Osaka. The weather is slowly falling, and the intense humidity that strangled the city, making 32C feel like 42C, is subsiding. I have enjoyed my time in Osaka immensely, and made a great friend in Takanori in the process.  But I can't stay forever.  I still plan to reach Tokyo by foot before the end of November, just not on the route I originally and painstakingly researched. Instead, I have chosen to alter my route to trace the Edo era road that connected Osaka and Tokyo (then called Edo) that runs predominantly through lowlands and the southern coast. This new route is about 2/3rds the length of my previous one, clocking in at about 600km, and will follow far more urban routes, with less stints into the wilderness than originally planned. This change in route is a response to the condition on my right knee, strained before I left Canada, and further aggravated in the mountains outside of Osaka.  I could have chosen to stubbornly th...

It is now 5:30am the sun has not yet risen and it is 26C. In this heat I do not think I am capable of carrying enough food and water to take a slow enough pace to continue. Botht weight and the bulk of the additional supplies to support a slower pace to accommodate the heat simply won't fit in my bag and be far to heavy if it did. I had hoped that starting the hike in September would have helped me avoid the summer heat, but it seems I was overly optimistic. I am going to return to Osaka now and regroup. Work out a different plan and then return to the trail once the weather is more favourable. I feel it is too risky to move forward knowing the conditions, possibly stranding myself between Osaka and Kyoto. Not a great start.

It is 7:30pm, It is dark, and I am sitting in my tent in my underwear sweating. My clothing from the day is soaked. It must be 30C in my tent. I've said this before in many posts, but I cannot understate the serious issue the heat here is becoming. During the day it is an intense, ever present challenge, sapping my energy as fast as the hiking. But at night it present a more insidious concern for me. My tent is unexpectedly good at capturing my body heat, of which I produce copious amounts of. Even when I take my rain fly layer off the tent (and risk getting rained on in the night, messing gear up inside the tent) and expose all my vent panels, including the main one stretching the arch of the ceiling, it is still significantly warmer in here than outside.  And I cannot leave my door flap open for more than a moment before my tent is invaded by all manner on insect. Add to that the other issue of my air mattress.  Specially selected for its a design and materials that refl...

This is the first real day of hiking, and the heat and humidity from yesterday continues today. I spent a lot of time planing, and in retrospect over emphasized my concern about the colder periods of my hike in late October and through through November. While this has lead me to bring all the gear I need, i failed to prepare mentally for the hot period in early September.  It's had been a serious shock to my system.  Before coming here I did a little of 300km of walking and hiking in Calgary, trying to prepare physically. And to some extent it has helped.  But for any physical progress I made before the trip, the climate of Calgary is nothing like the climate of Japan and my system is struggling to acclimate. The saving grace in all this is that I knew how punishing the would be generally, and I planned for a slow hike.  If I keep a pace of 15km per day I will finish in roughly 63 days, leaving me 27 spare for exploration and break days.  Right now ...