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…
Tag: Adventure
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…
Touring the Sanriku Coast – I
11/04/ 2014 SENDAI TO ISHINOMAKI The notion to be pragmatically angry at a botched night’s sleep, especially a paid for botched night’s sleep would I genuinely feel have been warranted. But as soon as I was packed and on the road muscling my way through the inner city traffic and out towards the coast I…
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 Return to Nikko – II
I awoke the following rainy day having had an odd dream, to clean my bicycle chain I use a toothbrush, a very oily toothbrush I might add. In the ethereal realm and against the science of hygiene it appeared to be perfectly acceptable for me to use this toothbrush in order to clean my teeth. I…
A Return to Nikko
The ascent up to Nikko was a steady one, yet despite all the training over the past week or so I found it surprisingly draining. I think every now and then the body just needs to recharge, all the physical exertion obviously taking its toll, which is exactly what I planned to do upon arrival…
Gyōza Town
Utsunomiya, vibrant, sensual and quite simply just rammed full of gyōza! Embedded between a number of swanky café’s and bars dotted around town you’ll find a number of gyōza joints offering up various adaptation’s of the Chinese dumpling. Legend has it that a number of Japanese soldiers during WWII obtained Chinese dumpling recipes whilst occupying…
The Naritan Waiting Game – Part II
The rain came earlier than expected, and it really wanted me. I’d read it was due to kick off at around 8am, it was now 2am and I found myself getting wet. I’d not used my tent tonight as it wasn’t an option, I was encamped upon my sleeping map on the concrete base of…
Up the Boso
The park I had found to make my nest in for the night was ideal, but again the climes were not. By 4am I couldn’t bare the cold anymore and was up and about looking for a fast food outlet to bide some more time until sunrise. Again like in Chichibu I found a 24…
The Chichibu Test – I
March 21st 2014 Saitama prefecture sits northwest of Tokyo, so in an effort to reach Chichibu in the mountain range again to the far northwest of the prefectural border I went at it in what will soon become my natural anti-clockwise fashion. It made sense to approach Saitama first like this as when my journey…
Tokyo to Tokyo 