After the Quake

September 20, 2018. The view from my seat on the turboprop from Central Hokkaido’s New Chitose Airport summed up my hesitancy to visit Japan’s northernmost island. Below, I could see hills pockmarked by landslides. In some places roads were blocked. I was witnessing effects of Hokkaido’s massive earthquake exactly two weeks earlier. In the early… Continue reading After the Quake

A Kind Person

At Kushiro Shitsugen National Park a woman stopped her car to give me an origami crane. I thanked her, and she drove on. After a hundred yards she stopped again, this time to offer me a ride to the train station. I thanked her and explained I love to walk.

View from a Plane

This weekend I plan to hike this caldera lake (Lake Mashu). Another caldera (Mount Kamui) rises out of the lake. I took this picture from a turboprop, today, on my way to Nemuro, the most easterly town in Hokkaido and Japan.

ORD

I will always find it exciting to board a plane in Chicago ORD at noon, then arrive Tokyo the next day, late afternoon.

Disaster Tourism

Entrapped school bus in lava

Hawaii Big Island, April 2009. My partner and I hiked across lava. A map on our GPS guided us along the invisible lines of streets buried beneath us. A school bus, trapped by lava, reminded us this is a disaster site where homes had once stood. Disaster Tourism can be distasteful. I think of people… Continue reading Disaster Tourism