Sounkyo The 1,984 meter Mt Kurodake can be tackled in two ways, hiking or cheating. Be in so it was my day off out of the saddle I decided that it would be in my best interests to opt for the latter and cheat my way to the mountains summit. I‘d achieve this by firstly…
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Hokkaido Summer: Farm Porn Uncensored
Furano – Asahikawa 46 miles Furano is famed in summer for its fields of lavender, and with the season’s sudden change farm labourers were out in force maintaining the crop in readiness for the hive of tourists that would shortly follow. Being slightly too early I would miss out on the lavender at its peak…
Hokkaido Summer: The Takikawa Midnight Sun
Takikawa – Furano 41 miles I awoke to the sound of a natural cuckoo clock, the skylark’s reeling also soon following suit from where he had left off the previous night. I was surprised by how well I’d slept on my first night back under the stars. Being broad daylight already the night had quite…
Hokkaido Summer
Sapporo – Takikawa 62 miles Despite the coming of the cherry blossom the weather the week prior to my departure from Sapporo had been a cold, wet and windy disgrace. A hostel guest that had just recently returned from the north would tell me that it was the coldest place he had ever been to…
Touring the Sanriku Coast – III
13/04/2014 Minamisanriku – Ofunato Daylight bought little change to my eyes. A vast nothingness of baron land would greet me in what was once a place known as Minamisanriku, a town that would be 95% wiped out during the tsunami. My thoughts dismally collecting with each and every place I encountered along this devastated coast…
Touring the Sanriku Coast – II
12/04/2014 Ishinomaki – Minamisanriku Today would be a deplorable mess with some half-arsed personal planning doused in a contingent of anti-social roads. Traipsing the Oshiku Peninsula regrettable. Situated just 45 miles away the Peninsula makes it the closest part of Honshu to the epicentre of the 2011 quake and again would make this one of…
The Fallout of Fukushima
History dictates that Japan is no stranger to Mother Nature’s wrath, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, torrential rain, landslides and typhoons have all blighted Japan’s islands for millennia. Situated precariously along the so called Pacific Rim of Fire a number of the earth’s tectonic plates converge enabling islands, mountain chains and volcanoes to formulate. It is here…
A Tale of Snow & Piss
I awoke early from my slumber knowing that today a formidable task lay ahead of me. One that had been lingering in the back of my mind intrepidly for some time. For today I would attempt to tackle the Bandai-Azuma Skyline, my greatest feat thus far. The road traverse’s for some 30km through the Azuma…
The Murder Stone
Nasu to Nasu-dake A thin layer of snow had settled over night giving me the perfect excuse in which to build some snowmen. I hated how cold it was in the mountains yet the sight of my snowmen over breakfast gave me some warmth and encouragement. The 8km climb up to Yumoto Park today from…
A Spring Winter’s Day
Approaching Nasu should have been a straight forward affair. I made sure it wasn’t though and spiced things up by taking a country road that would essentially lead on for an eternity and further on into oblivion. Things always get a little nervy when you haven’t seen a road sign for a town for at…
Tokyo to Tokyo 