I’m staying in Matsue on the northwest coast of Honshu. My project today was to hike trails on Mount Daisen in Daisen-Oki National Park. A train and a bus got me from Matsue to trailheads. Lots of steep climbs, magnificent fall colors, and occasional ancient temples and shrines.
Category: Walk
Hiker’s Lunch
Today’s picnic lunch, hiking an Olle Course.
Onigiri: rice, filled with pickled mustard greens, wrapped in nori (seaweed).
Egg sandwich, tuna sandwich.
Caramel custard.
Pocari Sweat.
Less than US$5 from one of Japan’s more than 50,000 wonderful konbini (convenience stores).
Far From Tokyo Crowds
Sendai, about 200 miles northeast of Tokyo, is my base for the next few days. From Sendai, rode a bullet train for 13 minutes, then rural trains to reach trails for some fall color hiking. The rural train line is in this photo.
A Hiking Theme for Each of Japan’s Main Islands
Japan has four main islands: Honshu is the most populous, followed by Kyushu, Hokkaido, and Shikoku. Hiking doesn’t need to have purpose apart from the obvious act of putting one foot in front of the other while staying upright. Sometimes, though, I like to have a theme underpinning a hike. Here’s a hiking theme for…… Continue reading A Hiking Theme for Each of Japan’s Main Islands
Hints of Fall
Hints of fall on our Sunday morning walk.
Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam
A surprise on our Sunday morning walk: Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam was open to the public. We peered into massive spaces normally hidden from us, and experienced the calm of the lock chamber contrasting with an unusually turbulent Mississippi.
A Walk to San Francisco
In April we completed a multi-day, inn-to-inn hike across and down the Marin County peninsula, across the bay from San Francisco. We walked through Muir Woods and across the peninsula to the Pacific. We then crossed back to the Bay side before heading to downtown San Francisco. This was an easy adventure: each day we…… Continue reading A Walk to San Francisco
Golden Gate Bridge
It was a perfect day to walk across the bridge: sunny, light breeze, temperatures in the 50’s. Below us, engineers were installing a $207 million barrier to dissuade people from jumping. Meanwhile, I felt unsteady, simply looking up at one of the two main towers.
Eight More Miles
Walked towards Golden Gate Bridge, 8 miles to go to Embarcadero BART Station, the end of our multi-day hike.
Glimpses of Tomorrow
Today, as we hiked across Marin County, we caught tiny glimpses of Golden Gate Bridge. Tomorrow, we hike across the bridge and into downtown San Francisco. This evening, in Sausalito, we went for an after-dinner stroll and admired the fading San Francisco skyline. Tomorrow, we’ll walk across that view, right to left, towards a BART…… Continue reading Glimpses of Tomorrow