Problem-solving

Well, on Thursday I confirmed the last of the outstanding accommodation bookings. Actually I cheated and got Keiko to phone the last three places, all traditional Japanese inns uncontactable by email or through any of the accommodation booking websites I'd used to book the other places. But anyway, that's out of the way now, so I can concentrate on other things, like shoes.

Right now I have two huge blisters on my feet, one on the back of each heel (right down the bottom). I felt fine during yesterday's walk until I reached my sister's house at around the 20km mark, and in fact I'd starting composing in my head a post about how pleased I was with the performance of my new Rockport Summit's Edge shoes on the Port Hills, where the terrain varied from tar seal, to rock, to mud (with the odd bit of ice), to dust. But as soon as I set out on the final leg of my journey my feet felt uncomfortable, and walking the last couple of kilometers home was actually quite painful.

I realized pretty soon after I bought them that the Rockports weren't the right size. I tried to convince myself that I'd fixed this problem by inserting the insoles from my old New Balance 748s, and that they'd feel better after a bit of use. If not, I'd try something else, I thought, like wearing two pairs of socks. But now I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that they're just not going to work. With just over a month to go before we hit Japan, I don't want to look around for another pair of shoes and risk going through the same process again, so what I think I'll end up doing is buying another pair of 748s and coating them with something to make them as waterproof as possible (the lack of waterproofing being the only drawback I experienced with my old 748s). At least I know they won't give me too many blisters, and that they'll last 530 km (just!).

Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since blog began: 593.4km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 44