Day 1: Kannonzaki - Kannai

Distance covered: 30 km
Weather: Mostly cloudy

After an early breakfast at Jonathan's, a 24-hour family restaurant just a few minutes' walk from my hotel in Kannai, Yokohama, I went back to my room and sorted through my things. The weather forecast was good, and since I'd be returning there at the end of the day, I was tempted to leave my rain gear and pack at the hotel and take just my bum bag. In the end, since my pack wasn't all that big anyway (22 litres), I decided to take it - a wise decision given the wild weather I would encounter on this, the first day of my journey on foot along National Route 16.

At 6.45 am I left my hotel and walked to Hinodemachi Station on the Keikyu Line. The platforms were thronged with commuters. However, the train I wanted to catch was heading south, in the opposite direction from Tokyo, and I naively imagined it wouldn't be very crowded. But it was standing room only for the first half of the 45-minute ride to Maborikaigan. There I transferred to a bus and not long afterwards I was in front of the Kannonzaki Keikyu Hotel, the starting point for my walk. I took a moment to look northeast out across Tokyo Bay towards Cape Futtsu in Chiba, where if everything went according to plan I would be finishing my walk in ten days' time. A distance of about 6 km as the crow flies, but 241 km along Route 16. At 8.30 am I set off.

I soon came to my first hill, just a small one but steep enough to have me breathing heavily by the time I reached the top. I definitely hadn't done enough training! But at least I was rewarded with a view. And thankfully it was mostly flat for the rest of the day. The traffic was also light for the first couple of hours, and this combined with the semi-tropical vegetation and ocean views put me in a positive frame of mind.

At Yokosuka I left Route 16 to do a little sightseeing. First stop was Mikasa Park, where Mikasa, a pre-dreadnought battleship that saw action in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5, is preserved as a museum ship. Next I took a stroll through Honcho, the bar district that caters mainly to personnel from the nearby US Navy base. I'd done a lot of research on the area for my novel, so it was interesting to see it "in the flesh," so to speak.

Not long afterwards, as I was passing through Oppama, it began to drizzle. Because it was almost lunchtime, I decided to press on until I came to a restaurant. But a few minutes later the drizzle turned into a downpour accompanied by thunder and lightning. I quickly sought refuge under a shop awning, where I donned my wet weather gear. The same wet weather gear I'd almost left at my hotel that morning. I'd bought the jacket the day before at a Montbell store in Shinjuku, so I was actually quite looking forward to trying it out. The pants I'd bought in Nagoya back in 2007 while walking the Nakasendo. I was also interested in seeing how my new "waterproof" New Balance walking shoes would perform in the wet. I waited for the thunder and lightning to stop, then braced myself and stepped out into the deluge. 

It was still raining when I eventually stopped for lunch at a bakery/restaurant near Kanazawa-Hakkei Station. As I ate my pizza set (which included a side salad and, somewhat bizarrely, a plate of three different kinds of bread) and drank my coffee, I became aware of blisters on the soles of both feet. I also felt cold. My mood, which had been so buoyant throughout the morning, was decidedly gloomy.

The rain had lifted by the time I set off again, but I still felt pretty glum for the remainder of the afternoon. Time passed slowly, and I was worried about the state of my feet. I was beginning to really regret having done so little training and having decided to cover such a long distance (30 km) on my first day. The last few kilometres were a real struggle, both physically and mentally. It was 4.30 pm by the time I arrived back at my hotel in Kannai. After dinner at a nearby Saizeriya, I had a bath in the hope that it would soak away the pain in my legs and tended as best I could to my blisters before hitting the sack.

Day 5: Shirakawa

Distance covered: 4 km
Weather: Cloudy

Day 5 dawned cloudy but minus rain. Thankfully, my shoes and most of my clothes had dried overnight. Those items that were still damp I put in a laundry bag and attacked with a hairdryer. After breakfast, I packed and checked out of my hotel, leaving my backpack at reception to pick up before returning to Tokyo by train later in the afternoon.

With just the clothes I was wearing and my bumbag, I set off just before 9 am to rejoin the Oshu Kaido. Being a Sunday morning, apart from a few people out walking their dogs, the streets were practically deserted. It felt strange not having the weight of my pack on my shoulders. I even felt slightly guilty, as if I was somehow cheating. As I neared Komine castle, the streets became narrower and I noticed the odd ancient-looking kura. There was also the occasional dogleg, a feature still common in former castle towns and originally designed to slow and confuse attacking armies.

With less than a hundred meters to go and the castle in sight, the reality of what I was about to achieve, not just in completing this walk but in completing the task I had set myself nearly ten years earlier of walking all the go-kaido (the five Edo period highways) hit home. A feeling of pride and  contentment washed over me, but I also felt a pang of sadness, as if without that goal my life had lost some meaning. These mixed feelings stuck wth me as I passed through the gate and into the park that now surrounds the castle.

Like the majority of castles in Japan, Komine castle is a modern reconstruction. The original castle was built in the mid 14th century. It was reconstructed and expanded in the mid 17th century, only to be destroyed some two centuries later in the civil war between the forces that supported the Tokugawa shogunate and those that favoured the return of political power to the Imperial court. The three-story keep was reconstructed in 1991, and three years later one of the gates was restored. However, these structures and some of the surrounding stonework were damaged in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, and while I was able to look around inside the keep, some areas of the grounds were still being repaired and were fenced off.  

After a leisurely lunch, I walked to the nearby Shirakawa station and took a train one stop to Shin-Shirakawa station. I walked to my hotel, picked up my pack, and returned to the station to catch the 1.56 pm bullet train back to Tokyo. The journey back to Tokyo took just under an hour and a half. Along the way we made a brief stop at Utsunomiya, where four days earlier I began this walk. The bullet train covered the 90 km in 25 minutes!

Shoe shopping

Last week I went shoe shopping, and I didn't even leave the house.

I was thinking about what shoes I'll use when I walk the Koshu Kaido later this year, and decided that of all the shoes I've walked in over the years, the most comfortable were probably the New Balance 748s I wore on the Nakasendo in 2007. The only drawback was they weren't waterproof. So I checked out Amazon to see what they had in the way of waterproof New Balance walking shoes.

This pair of Gore-Tex-lined 977s caught my eye. I thought they looked pretty cool. At US$100, the price wasn't bad either. With the New Zealand dollar so strong at the moment, even with shipping included they shouldn't be more the NZ$200, I thought. On further inspection, however, I discovered that Amazon wouldn't ship them to this part of the world.

I then checked the US New Balance online store. They had the 977s for US$140, but they wouldn't ship to New Zealand either. After trying various other US-based online shoe retailers, none of which would ship New Balance shoes here, I checked New Balance's New Zealand online store. Knowing that a couple of years ago New Balance had drastically reduced the range of walking shoes they sold here to just a couple of models, I didn't hold out much hope, and sure enough they had very little, and nothing waterproof.

There was an 0800 number, so as a last resort I decided to give them a call to see if there was any chance of getting hold of some 977s. To cut a long story short, the answer was no. But when I explained what I needed them for, the man on the phone recommended some 967s instead. I hadn't heard of these before. It didn't take long, however, to work out that they were the replacement for the 966s, a pair of which I'd worn last year when I walked the Tokaido. (You may recall that these were actually women's shoes that I bought on sale. I think they were actually too narrow, because my left little toe took quite a beating on the Tokaido walk, and I ended up loosing the toenail.)

The funny thing was I hadn't seen the 967s either on Amazon or on any of the New Balance websites. When I mentioned this to the man on the phone, he said he'd have a word to the people in charge and that they should appear the next day. I was a bit skeptical, but sure enough when I checked the US and New Zealand online stores the next morning the 967s were there.

So, I put in my order and a few days later they arrived on my doorstep. I was a bit nervous about buying a pair of shoes without trying them on. Then again, rarely have a tried on a pair of New Balance shoes that don't fit. Also, I knew they came with a 30-day unconditional returns policy. I needn't have worried, however, because they fit perfectly.

Hike to Hornby

It rained throughout today's training walk, at times quite heavily. But I didn’t mind. I've grown to quite enjoy walking in the rain. Plus I wanted to give my waterproof New Balance 965 shoes a good workout in the wet. They came through OK. My feet certainly stayed dry, which is the main thing.

While at Hornby I checked out the Columbia outlet store to see if they had any fleece vests. I already have a Columbia fleece vest that I was intending on taking to Japan, but Mrs Fool doesn't like it. She says that it's too big and that it sticks up at the shoulders, a bit like a Japanese kataginu, or shoulder piece, as worn by the handsome warrior in the photo below. So I've been looking around for a replacement. I've tried on quite a few over the last week or so, but I'm having trouble finding one in the right colour, the right size, and the right style.


Distance walked today: 15.6km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 308.2km
Days left until departure: 11

A good rinsing

No training today, but I used yesterday's 5km walk in the rain to give my wet weather gear a bit of a workout.

The "ocean" Kathmandu Gore-Tex jacket you'll be familiar with from previous posts. I bought it back in May 2007 and wore it when I walked the Nakasendo. Apart from the leaky pockets I have no complaints about it at all.

Although the navy blue Team Stolite rain trousers I bought in July 2007 did go nicely with the jacket, they were almost completely nonbreathable. By day five of the Nakasendo walk (two of which were wet) I'd had enough of being a walking sauna and so I replaced them with some black Gore-Tex rain trousers by Mont Bell which I bought in Nagoya.

Last year I bought a waterproof/breathable Outdoor Research Nimbus Sombrero, similar to the one Erik wore on the Nakasendo walk. I've worn it a bit since then, but never in the rain. I found it so much better than a jacket hood. With a hood up, both the movement of your head and your field of vision are restricted. To be able to walk along in heavy rain and move my head to see everything around me without fear of getting wet was a truly liberating experience.

Finally, I wore by new waterproof New Balance 965 shoes, which did their job by keeping my feet dry. Overall I'm very happy with them. I think I'll wear them again on one or two long walks, but otherwise leave them alone until I begin the Tokaido walk in May. I don't want to wear them out and have to buy another pair just before I leave. I'll do most of my training in shoes I already have, including my 748s and the Keens I bought last year which, although good, don't match for comfort the New Balances I've worn over the years.


One item I didn't test out yesterday was my new Olympus µ 770 SW digital camera, which is shockproof and waterproof. It was given to Keiko by a friend in Japan who for some reason didn’t want it, and since Keiko already has a fairly new Panasonic digital camera, I've decided to take the Olympus with me when I walk the Tokaido. Apparently you can use it underwater to a depth of 10 meters, drop it from a height of over a meter, and stand on it. The manual includes instructions on how to rinse it in a bucket (see picture) to get rid of any sand or mud! So it's perfectly OK to use it in the rain, but I'm still incredibly nervous about doing so.

Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 29.3km
Days left until departure: 85

Summit's Edge: The Sequel

You may recall the saga of the waterproof Rockport Summit's Edge shoes that I bought back in August 2007. You know, the ones that cost me an arm and a leg and were worn just three or four times. The ones that were slightly too big and gave me terrible blisters.

Well, my big brother Mark recently paid a visit from Bhutan, where he now lives, and he mentioned that he needed some new outdoor shoes. I did a bit of investigating and discovered that his feet were slightly bigger than mine. So I had him try on the Rockports. And, lo and behold, they were a perfect fit.

So after sitting in my wardrobe for a year and a half, they're now half a world away treading the streets of Thimphu and ferrying my brother up steep Himalayan mountain tracks to cliff-hanging Buddhist monasteries.

One thing that does concern me is the ability of the suede uppers to cope with the harsh natural environment in Bhutan, including the yak dung. Perhaps Mark could provide a report?

On a completely different note, I decided a while ago that today would mark the commencement of my training for the Tokaido walk. Unfortunately all I had time for was a stroll down to the supermarket and back, so it's not a very auspicious start. Anyway, 90 days to go...

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 3km
Days left until departure: 90

Return to Northlands

Last Monday I drove over to Northlands to look for some new waterproof walking shoes. I'd been looking around town for some New Balance 965s (or the newer 966s) but hadn't seen any. I even tried the New Balance outlet store in Hornby, but without success. I bought the New Balance 748s I wore when we walked the Nakasendo at The Athlete's Foot in Northlands (I walked there on that occasion as part of my training), so I figured I'd go back there. But when I went in and enquired I was told that New Balance had reduced their lineup of walking shoes in New Zealand to just two models, and the 965 wasn't one of them.

Dispirited, I wondered through the mall, stopping at the Ticketek outlet to pick up a ticket to the Tomasz Stańko gig on 7 March. I passed a Front Runner, and decided to go in to see what they had. I was about to try on some Merrells when I spotted what looked like some 965s in the sale section. They turned out to be women's 965s, but the shop assistant reckoned they should fit me (I have small feet and often have trouble getting men's shoes in my size). They felt pretty comfortable. Plus I think they look nicer than the men's version. I actually tried on a pair of 964s (an earlier model of the same shoe) a couple of years ago and they felt stiff compared to my 748s, which put me off buying them. Although they have the exact same soles as the 748s, the uppers are made of a waterproof leather so they're not as flexible (the 748 uppers are a combination of leather and a synthetic mesh material). But the 965s weren't stiff at all, so I bought them. At $100, they were less than half the original price.

Then, as if that wasn't enough shopping for one day, as I was heading back to the car I saw a box set of season 1 of The Wire on DVD for $34.99 and snapped it up. I already have season 5 on DVD. I'm not sure if I'll get the other three seasons (which I've seen anyway, courtesy of Grant). I see a box set of all five seasons is out in the US, and selling on Amazon for US$135. That's $255 in our money, plus there'd be some hefty postage on top of that. With the NZ dollar so weak I've been holding back on Amazon purchases lately. My Wish List is growing, although I was able to cross off one item yesterday when I bought Keith Jarrett's latest release from the iTunes Store for $17.99, saving at least five dollars!

I've since worn the 965s a couple of times to the supermarket and back and so far they seem OK. I'm waiting for some decent rain so I can test them in the wet.

Laces locked

I'm still not entirely happy with my new Rockport Summit's Edge walking shoes. I solved the blister problem (I think) by putting the insoles from my old New Balance 748s inside the Rockports, but when I walked to the supermarket on Tuesday and again today I still felt they were a bit lose around the ankle. When I got down to the supermarket today I tried "lock-lacing" them (a method I've used to good effect in the past on my running shoes), and they felt a lot better on the way home. I'll know for sure whether I've fixed the problem or not on the weekend when I plan to wear them on a long walk with my backpack on.

Distance walked today: 3km
Distance walked the day before yesterday: 3km
Total distance walked since blog began: 565km
Days left until launch of Kisokaido Project: 47