Random thoughts on the changing of the seasons

A couple of the camellias in our garden are practically in full bloom. Didn't they get the memo? Spring doesn't arrive until next week.

Isn't it strange how we use the same words (spring, summer, etc.) to describe the seasons in different countries when in many cases they're quite dissimilar? Summer in Japan is almost unbearably hot and humid. Summer in New Zealand is pleasantly mild.

And then there's the Japanese "rainy season". I'm sorry, but calling the brief spell of damp, drizzly weather between Japanese spring and summer a rainy season is an affront to those people who live in places like the Indian subcontinent where it pours for months. Plus you can't go on and on about how lucky you are to live in a country blessed with four distinct seasons and claim a fifth one at the same time.

Today as I walked across Barrington Park on my way to the supermarket, I felt a change underfoot. The familiar uneven turf, pockmarked from being trampled over by hundreds if not thousands of studded-boot wearing rugby and soccer players over the winter, suddenly gave way to a smooth, even surface. A cricket block had been rolled out. This got me thinking. For city-dwelling sports fans, are there really only two distinct seasons: the winter sports season and the summer sports season?

I don't play much sport, but as a city-dweller with very little connection to the land (those of you who have seen our garden will know what I mean), I tend to regard winter (the cold time of year) and summer (the warmish time of year) as the only real seasons, and spring and autumn as no more than transitional periods when summer slowly changes into winter and winter into summer.

Even those people who do regard spring and autumn as distinct seasons in their own right would have to admit that the seasons generally have less impact on our lives than they used to. Gone are the days, for example, when the time of year dictated what kinds of vegetables we ate. One thing I can confirm from my frequent supermarket visits is that the range of fruit and vegetables available varies little throughout the year.

Perhaps the only truly seasonal vegetable that remains - and it's one I personally hold in high regard -is the asparagus. In fact, so eagerly do I await the arrival of these delectable green shoots on the supermarket shelves that I think they deserve to have a special season named after them. So if I had things my way, New Zealand would have just three seasons: the warmish season, the cold season, and the asparagus season.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 517.2km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 56

500km

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 514.2km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 57

Multi-tasking

Once again, Erik has put me to shame. He's vowed to walk ten miles per day, everyday, until he leaves for Japan. How on earth does he do it? Work full time, make wonderful art, blog, and train every day. By being organized, focused, and dedicated, that's how. I, on the other hand, have never been very good at multi-tasking. Last week I was inspired to work on my memoir. I wrote like a demon, getting through most of 2001, which was quite an achievement (it was an eventful year), but everything else suffered. Work, blogging, walking all took a back seat.

Speaking of multi-tasking, last night I sat down and watched Bukowski: Born Into This, a feature-length documentary about the poet and novelist Charles Bukowski. Bukowski managed to be a drunkard, a womanizer, a postal worker, and an incredibly prolific writer all at the same time. Like Guy Debord, he seemed to spend most of his life in varying states of inebriation. And like Debord, he was accused of being a misogynist. He denied the accusation. He said he loved women. In fact he spent a lot of time researching them for one of his novels, Women. But during one astonishing, booze-fueled interview included in the documentary, Bukowski, beer bottle in hand, lashes out both verbally and physically at his then wife, who's seated next to him on the sofa, first claiming she, like all his other girlfriends, had taken advantage of his kind nature, then threatening to hire a "Jew lawyer" to get rid of her, and finally pummeling her with his bare feet like a petulant child. So, a misogynist and an anti-Semite.

I have a bit of a weakness for artists who not only have seriously flawed personalities, but also have no qualms about parading their flaws in public. It's reassuring to look at them and think, I know I've got my problems, but at least I'm not as messed up as that guy. Or, Hey, he's more messed up than me, but he still managed to become a great artist. I guess it helps if you're also incredibly talented. I've never read any Bukowski. But the documentary ended with the following poem, read I think by the author himself, which took my breath away. Not that I wept or anything.

Bluebird

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

Distance walked today: 16.2km
Maximum altitude reached: 365m
Total distance walked since blog began: 511.2km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 58

To iPod or not to iPod

Erik and I had a very enjoyable Skype session on Thursday (at least it was enjoyable for me). I brought up the question of whether or not I should take my iPod (or maybe it was my noise-canceling headphones - I can't quite remember), since with the adapter and all it weighs quite a bit. Apparently I'd discussed it with Erik before, because he said the fact that I've mentioned it more than once means that I definitely will end up taking it.

The only times I think I'd use to it would be on the plane on the way over and possibly at night. No way would I listen to it during the actual walking. In fact I've never been tempted to shut off my ears to the sounds around me while walking, jogging, or cycling. One reason is that it's dangerous if you can't hear traffic approaching. But also I quite enjoy taking in the sounds around me out on the street. It's all part of the walking experience.

Distance walked today: 0km
Distance walked yesterday: 3km
Distance walked day before yesterday: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 495km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 59

A weight off the shoulders

Still a bit concerned about my ability to carry a heavy load (i.e. full backpack) over a long distance (i.e. 530km) in a relatively short space of time (i.e. 21 days), today I sorted out what clothes I think I'll be taking based on the list on the wiki, stuffed them together with a few other items (shaver, iPod, etc.) into my Osprey Aether 60, and weighed it.

To my surprise, it barely came to 9kg. Here was me thinking I'd be struggling to keep the total under 15kg, but it looks as though 10kg will be closer to the mark. That's actually less than what I carried up the hill on Saturday. So I'm on track. I reckon I just need to do a bit more training with that same load, including some 35km-plus walks, and I'll be ready. I must admit a few doubts have crept into my mind over the last couple of weeks, but my confidence is returning.

Distance walked today: 3km
Distance walked yesterday: 7.2km
Total distance walked since blog began: 489km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 63

Lazy Sunday

I felt a tad guilty today as I had another entire day off work and therefore should have backed up yesterday's walk with another of equal if not longer duration. But I felt inspired to write, so instead I stayed home most of the day working on a memoir I started over a year ago and hadn't touched for several months.

When I did head out (to the supermarket) I got halfway down the street and felt something wasn't right. I was sure I'd left by small shopping backpack at home, and had actually turned around to go back and get it when I realized it was actually on my back. I laughed as I realized it was so light compared to the one I had on yesterday I hadn't noticed it. That's the best thing about walking around with a heavy load on your back; it feels great when you take it off.

I received final confirmation of another accommodation booking yesterday. It's at Daikokuya, the old place with the dirt floor I've written about a couple times. It seems the people who run it also have a gallery of some sort. I'm sure that'll get Erik all excited. Maybe they'll be interested in showing some of the work we do along the way or after we get home.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 478.8km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 64

Weight + hill

This morning I did a variation of the hill walk I did in late-April. It's not a walk I remember that fondly. It was raining back then, and I was trialing a cheap blue plastic poncho that ended up being a bit of a disaster, both aesthetically and practically. It was also the day my last round of toenail troubles started.

Things were a lot different today. For a start, I had an extra 10kg on my back. On the advice of my brother, I ditched the weights and instead filled the pack with clothes so that it was evenly balanced and nothing hard was rubbing against my lower back. Like last week, I found the going a bit tough at first, especially at the start of the ascent, but I generally felt pretty comfortable throughout. Funnily enough the pack actually seemed more stable during the hill climb. Must be something to do with my gait.

All things considered, the body seems to be coping well with the extra weight. However, restricting my luggage to 10kg during the Nakasendo walk might be pushing it. Fifteen might be more realistic. We'll see.

Distance walked today: 12.4km
Total distance walked since blog began: 475.8km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 65

Excess weight

Yesterday I bought a waterproof pack liner from Kathmandu. I was unsure whether I should get a liner or one of those waterproof covers you put over your pack, but in the end I went for the liner, firstly because it was cheaper, and secondly because they didn't have the covers in any decent colors (like Ocean or Sunburst, for example).

The liner also has printed on it a handy list of outdoor survival tips (things like "keep warm," "drink plenty of water," and "be determined to survive") along with instructions for building an emergency shelter. Unfortunately there's no information about avoiding bears, or on what one should do when confronted with one, which would have been handy in light of this news.

Karuizawa isn't a wee country town, either; it's a major tourist resort with a population of over 18,000. What's more, the incident occurred just 600m from the main station. We're due to stay in Karuizawa on 8 November. Things like this weigh on my mind.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 463.4km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 66

The very last post-Nakasendo post (honest!)

The obvious follow up to walking the Nakasendo would be to walk the Tokaido, which also connects Kyoto and Tokyo but via a more direct, coastal route. In fact it would have made sense to do the Tokaido first, but since when has sense had anything to do with this project?

Actually, as I think I mentioned in one of my very first posts, the thought of walking the Tokaido did occur to me some twenty years ago when I was first studying Japanese, long before I'd ever heard of the Nakasendo. I even bought a book (The Great Road: Japan's Highway to The Twentieth Century - it's still on my bookshelf) that outlines the history of the Tokaido and has quite a few photos showing what the route looks like today, with the precise aim of walking it some day.

However, several things convinced me it wasn't such a good idea. Among these was the knowledge that the route of the Tokaido is busier, even more developed, and therefore less scenic than the Nakasendo. I've also traveled the route numerous times before on trains, which means I'm familiar with the scenery and most of the important towns along the way. Then again, it might be nice to revisit them at a more leisurely pace.

Distance walked today: 7.6km
Total distance walked since blog began: 460.4km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 67

Even more post-Nakasendo

The ancient pilgrimage routes known as the Kumano Kodo in the Kii Mountain Range in Japan are registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The only other pilgrimage route to be named a World Heritage Site is el Camino de Santiago.

Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since blog began: 452.8km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 68

More post-Nakasendo

"In addition to people undertaking a religious pilgrimage, there are many travellers and hikers who walk the route for non-religious reasons: travel, sport, or simply the challenge of weeks of walking in a foreign land."

They're talking about St. James' Way, otherwise known as el Camino de Santiago. I've always wanted to go to Spain.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 452.8km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido soon Project: 69

Post-Nakasendo

Strange though it may seem, I spend quite a bit of time thinking about what I'm going to do after I walk the Nakasendo. I'd heard about a plan to create a walking track the length of New Zealand, but when I went to look it up the other day I couldn't remember its name. Well, last Thursday night Keiko and I went to a play called Hatch, based on the true story of a local politician who was responsible for killing millions of penguins and having them boiled down for their oil, and in the programme it mentioned that the playwright, Geoff Chapple, was also the driving force behind the track. It's called Te Araroa, and it's not a single track but rather a project that involves connecting existing tracks and forming new ones in such a way that they'll eventually stretch the length of the North and South islands. I must admit I haven't explored the website much yet, although what I did see looked pretty interesting. Some people haven't been able to wait until the proposed opening in 2008 and have already walked the route. Maybe a project for the future. Distance walked today: 3km Total distance walked since blog began: 449.8km Days left until launch of Kisokaido soon Project: 70

Still excited about tasks

Booked another hotel this morning. Was thinking it's about time I loaded up my pack (which has been sitting in a corner of my study largely untouched since the day I bought it) with the things I'll be taking and weighed it, and also about time I did some training with it on. Maybe this weekend.

Erik has come up with some nice ideas for tasks, one involving collaging.

Distance walked today: 6.1km
Total distance walked since blog began: 425.1km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 73

Interest rekindled

Ever since the minor meltdown in our relationship sparked by the unveiling of my 126 words, I haven't given much thought to the art portion of the Kisokaido Project. I think both of us were too scared to mention it for a while. I started to lose interest, and was pretty much resigned to letting it become Erik's baby. Erik is an artist, I'm not, I thought, so why not let him worry about the art and me concentrate on the walk itself? But Erik wasn't prepared to give up so easily. He's passionate about making art, and passionate about making other people passionate about making art.

Anyway, on Sunday (Monday here) he mentioned on his blog how in Japan we used to make lists of all the things we needed or wanted to do each day, and cross them off as we did each one. (Strangely enough I'd been thinking about this just a day or two previously.) Erik thought this might form the basis of an art project. He suggested coming up with sixty-nine tasks, and doing them at each stop on the Nakasendo. I took it a step further - or perhaps misunderstood - and started thinking in terms of doing sixty-nine tasks each day, not at each stop but throughout the entire day. I got all excited, and sat down and wrote a short list of tasks, including composing a poem/haiku, eating something new, and helping someone, all of which are now part of a growing list of ideas (including some exciting new ones from Erik, I see) on a new page on the wiki.

There are lots of things I like about this proposal. But the main one is that by choosing the tasks carefully we can make it so that the art isn't something separate from the walk that could be seen as interfering with it (in the way that having to stop to take video would, for example), but something that's an integral part of the walk, something that will actually make the walk itself more enjoyable and fulfilling.

Erik's already put out a call on his blog asking for people to come up with suggestions for tasks we could perform. So I'm going to do the same. We're not looking for random tasks, by the way. There should be a point in doing them. They should all be beneficial in some way, either to us or to the people we meet. They shouldn't be too time consuming. They should be legal. And they should be fun. They could be tasks we do individually or tasks we do together. An added bonus would be that they relate in some way to the history of the Nakasendo or to Hiroshige's prints. So get your thinking caps on and send in your ideas.

As you can see, I'm interested again.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 419km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 74

Just a game

Erik just sent me this photo (with close-up) taken during one of our "drifts" through the streets of Tokyo in the mid-1990s. That's Erik's then-girlfriend Michie in the fetching red nose doing a nice impersonation of a child.

Judging by our clothing, it looks like it was winter, so that makes it either late 1996 or early 1997. (I'm sure I could find out the exact date if I tried.) Erik was saying how vivid his memories were of that one evening compared to all the other evenings we spent together. Yet it was only a game, and apart from the memories (and this photo) we have nothing at all to show for it.

Distance walked today: 3km
Distance walked yesterday: 5.1km
Total distance walked since blog began: 416km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 75

400km!

Cool. Not only did I feel better yesterday than I did during last Saturday's walk, but today I felt a lot less sore than I did last Sunday (when I was too tired to even blog). Sure, the calves were a bit stiff when I got up, but by early afternoon I was eager to get out in the sun, so I walked down to the supermarket and back. My New Balance 748s were still a bit wet, so I slipped on my old jogging shoes instead.

Later I booked a hotel in Tokyo for the four nights I'll be there at the end of the walk. I wonder what condition we'll be in when we arrive.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 407.9km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 77

The walk of death

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this walking thing. It was raining quite heavily for the last hour or so of today's walk, but did I care? No, because I had on my "ocean" Kathmandu Gore-Tex jacket and navy blue Team Stolite rain trousers, and because unlike last week, I wasn't tired and didn't have aching legs. OK, so the legs were a bit sore for the last couple of kilometers, but it was nothing like last Saturday, when I hit the wall at about the 20km mark.

I'm not sure why I felt so much better today. Maybe it's because I was a bit more careful about what I ate. For a start, I had peanut butter on my toast this morning instead of the usual Vegemite. I also took along a packet of "trail mix" (a mixture of nuts, raisins, dried fruit, and chocolate), which I nibbled on throughout the day. I didn't have much for lunch - just a muffin and a cup of coffee - but the trail mix kept me going. Then again, maybe it wasn't the food; maybe all the training is finally paying off.

Death seemed to be a recurring theme throughout today's walk. Heading into town I discovered a new walkway that eventually led me into the Addington Cemetery. (I enjoyed it so much I took the same route coming home.) Later, while walking along the Avon River, I passed the Barbadoes Street Cemetery, one of the city's oldest. Later still, I passed through Bromley, which seems to be full of cemeteries, crematoriums, and memorial gardens.

The only sour note of the day was struck when I got home and found that my socks and feet were a bit damp. (Also the pockets in my jacket aren't waterproof, but I knew that and so I've only got myself to blame for the fact that my cell phone got wet.) But the shoes are a bit of a worry. I'm wondering if I should I shell out $300 for a pair of those waterproof Rockports I tried on a couple of weeks ago. They were pretty comfortable.

Distance walked today: 34.8km
Total distance walked since blog began: 404.9km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 78

Why I never became an architect

Apologies for the lack of posts this week. I wish I could say it's because I've been busy walking. Instead, it's work commitments (and general slackness) that have prevented me from posting as often as I'd like. Actually, I tend to find it easier to write when I have been out walking, as that's when I do a lot of thinking about the Kisokaido Project - and other things.

Last Saturday, for example, while admiring all the different houses along the Heathcote River, I was reminded of my early aspirations to become an architect and started composing a lengthy post that touched on, among other things, the 1970s TV series The Courtship of Eddie's Father (starring Bill Bixby, whom I mistakenly thought played an architect, possibly confusing him with Robert Reed, who did play an architect in another, far less classy, 1970s TV series, The Brady Bunch) and my trauma at realizing at the age of 13 or 14 that I lacked one of the main talents required in order to pursue such a career, namely, the ability to draw neatly.

Anyway, for some reason (possibly fatigue) I never got round to finishing that post. Maybe I'll do better this weekend. I'm intending to do another 30km-plus walk. I haven't worked out where yet, although the thought of completing the second leg of the Two Rivers walk is inviting.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 370.1km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 79

Instant hydration

I confirmed reservations at three more hotels yesterday. That leaves just seven more to go.

While in town today I looked into hydration systems. It's important to stay hydrated while walking, and carrying a water bottle can be a bit of a pain sometimes. With one of these water bladders in my pack, I wouldn't have to stop or fiddle round trying to find my water bottle. I'd just put the valve in my mouth and hey presto, instant hydration!

Distance walked today: 10.2km
Total distance walked since blog began: 367.1km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 80