Nuts and bolts

I'm afraid you'll have to bear with me for a couple of posts as I bring you to up to speed with developments to date.

OK, so after hitting on the idea of walking between Kyoto and Tokyo, I did some googling and came across a whole lot of websites dedicated to walking the Nakasendo. Of these, this one is probably the best:

http://www.geocities.jp/gkhyagi/5kaido/go-11nakasendo69-1.htm

It's in Japanese, but there's a nice map showing the 69 "stations" (towns roughly 5-20km apart where people used to rest or stay the night) between Tokyo and Kyoto, and some sample itineraries for walking the Nakasendo. The people behind the website also publish a handmade walking map of the entire route, a copy of which I've already ordered.

I was getting excited by this stage, and started thinking about when to go. Spring or autumn would be best (the Japanese summer is horribly muggy, and I didn't want to be walking through snow in winter). So I figured either March-April or October-November 2008. It was around this time that I first mentioned the idea to Erik, and after he expressed an interest in tagging along, my excitement peaked and I thought, why not October-November this year? So at the moment we're looking at setting off in mid- to late-October and finishing in early- to mid-November, hopefully catching some nice autumn colours along the way but not too much in the way of cold weather.

I then started thinking about how long it would take. The sample itineraries on that website are based on a walking pace of 30, 40, or 50km a day, so I took the middle option and figured that would take around 15 days. Of course, at this stage I had no idea if 40km a day was a reasonable pace, or if I was even capable of walking that distance each day for two straight weeks.

Next my thoughts turned to money. I still haven't done a proper budget, but given that we'll be staying in business hotels or sharing rooms in inns (when Erik suggested taking along a tent I made it clear in no uncertain terms that that wasn't an option), I reckon NZ$100 a day should just about cover it (the good thing about a walking trip is that transportation costs are minimal!). Then there's the airfare on top of that, which should be around NZ$1600. So, allowing for a total stay in Japan of three weeks, that works out at about NZ$3600. Sweet!

The next question was the direction. Should we walk from Tokyo to Kyoto or the other way? I was set on starting in Kyoto, firstly because it seemed more historically "accurate" (I was under the impression that the Nakasendo and the other highways were largely established so that people in the old capital, Kyoto, and other provinces could get to the new capital, Tokyo, though now I'm not so sure of the accuracy of this reasoning), and secondly because I usually do some shopping whenever I go to Tokyo, and I didn't want to do this at the start of the trip and have to lug everything in a backpack for 530km. I mentioned the matter of the direction to Erik, and being an extremely practically minded individual, he brought up the altitude factor. In other words, if we started relatively high up and ended at sea level, then that would mean a net downhill journey! I thought about it for a moment or two, and figured that Tokyo was definitely at sea level, while Kyoto is in a basin surrounded by mountains, so is surely quite a bit higher than sea level (I haven't confirmed that, though). Another reason to start in Kyoto. So far, the only argument against starting in Kyoto has been that the famous series of woodblock prints produced by Hiroshige and Eisen in the mid-19th century showing scenes along the Nakasendo that may or may not form the basis of an art project accompanying this walk starts in Tokyo. You can see these prints here, by the way, along with another map (Kisokaido is just another name for the Nakasendo):

http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/kisokaido/kisokaido.htm

So although a final decision has yet to be made, at the moment my preference is still for a Kyoto start.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, more nuts and bolts, and maybe a bit about my walking buddy/collaborator, Erik.

Distance walked today: 3.0km
Total distance walked since blog began: 5.1km