May 19 - 1 bus and 7 trains

Up at 4:15AM. One bus, 3 trains, one RAMSAR site providing two life birds, 4 more trains. Back at our Tokyo AirBnB. It was a swell day. 

Two important things we never mentioned. 

1. Nobody wants a warm toilet seat when it's over 20C. Certainly not when it's 30C. That's just cruel. 

2. The Japanese Bush Warbler is the bird of the trip by a long shot. Every day. Nearly every habitat. This dull looking little grey bird sings his heart out.  He starts out sounding like something from Australia like a Whipbird, only louder. Then an amazing series of whistled chirps. Some parts of the song are routine, and then occasionally his metronome gets messed up and he stutters or falls asleep, only to burst back with gusto. We will miss him. 

https://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=Japanese+bush+Warbler

We're happy and healthy and ready to see our bears. 

We are here, back at the same wonderful AirBnB in Tokyo where we stayed a week ago. Not the mosquito one in Shimoda, but a nice one we liked. 

http://w3w.co/speak.rise.chickens

May 18 - last day walking

Spent a half day walking to Heda, another small fishing town. Heda is a real town that makes its living on fishing and not just tourists. Sorted out the bus schedule and made a plan to return to Tokyo tomorrow (Saturday) for our flight home on Sunday. 

After lunch we came out to the large spit that creates the harbor. Spent a few hours watching the sea and doing nothing of note 😎

Cloudy all day so no view of Mount Fuji. Too bad.

We're happy and healthy. Glad to be in the tent because mosquitoes came out in force at sunset. 

We are here http://w3w.co/indulges.toddling.innovate

May 17 - good walking, flawed campsite

A good day's walk on a mix of great trails and roads. But humid and eighty-something is not optimal. 

Finished the day in a little coastal town. Dinner at the convenience store, as most restaurants and other establishments appear closed or abandoned. Scoped out a nice campsite in the town park on a beautiful mowed grassy flat adjacent to the baseball field (right field fence 87 meters). Walked a couple minutes to the waterfront where we drank our 5% alcohol carbonated grapefruit drinks, saw a hazy bit of Mt Fuji through the clouds, and watched a sixty-something couple engaged in the hard laborious task of collecting seaweed, bagging it, and loading it to their mini pickup truck. 

As we arrived back at our intended campsite many cars arrived and disgorged men in baseball uniforms. Within a minute the lights were on and it is now lit up like Wrigley Field. Bats cracking and whoops of joy. 

After a bit of fussing we found a campsite 50 meters from the field, slightly protected from the lights by broad-leaf trees. James is like the Prince and the Pea - he sleeps best with a site that is flat, level, quiet, and dark. Amy is more tolerant of those adversities, but doesn't like being to warm, and it's still "naked and no covers" temperature. So neither of have achieved perfection at this moment. 

We're happy and healthy but Amy is still warmer than she likes and Jim still has more light and noise than he likes for sleeping. So conditions are not perfect. 

We are here http://w3w.co/unhelpful.dwelled.igloo

May 17 - good coast, flawed campsite

A good day's walk on a mix of great trails and roads. But humid and eighty-something is not optimal. 

Finished the day in a little coastal town. Dinner at the convenience store, as most restaurants and other establishments appear closed or abandoned. Scoped out a nice campsite in the town park on a beautiful mowed grassy flat adjacent to the baseball field (right field fence 87 meters). Walked a couple minutes to the waterfront where we drank our 5% alcohol carbonated grapefruit drinks, saw a hazy bit of Mt Fuji through the clouds, and watched a sixty-something couple engaged in the hard laborious task of collecting seaweed, bagging it, and loading it to their mini pickup truck. 

As we arrived back at our intended campsite many cars arrived and disgorged men in baseball uniforms. Within a minute the lights were on and it is now lit up like Wrigley Field. Bats cracking and whoops of joy. 

After a bit of fussing we found a campsite 50 meters from the field, slightly protected from the lights by broad-leaf trees. James is like the Prince and the Pea - he sleeps best with a site that is flat, level, quiet, and dark. Amy is more tolerant of those adversities, but doesn't like being to warm, and it's still "naked and no covers" temperature. So neither of have achieved perfection at this moment. 

We're happy and healthy but Amy is still warmer than she likes and Jim still has more light and noise than he likes for sleeping. So conditions are not perfect. 

We are here http://w3w.co/unhelpful.dwelled.igloo

First photo: looking down on a shipyard with dozens of men doing maintenance tasks on two ships. 

Second photo: mid-day, man drying seaweed on a road that had been closed due to landslides. 

May 16 - along the coast

Warm, but not as sweaty hot as yesterday.

Nice walking on trails that are recently restored historical tracks. The road between fishing villages was built in 1965. When it was built the old footpath connecting villages was abandoned. There is a project underway to build a 100km coastal path, primarily making use of the old trails. 45 km is done, so we're using those plus some road walking to work our way north along the coast.

Restoring the abandoned path is no small effort. Between the steep loose hillsides and the rapidly growing thick temperate coastal vegetation, the way can be rapidly obliterated without maintenance.

This is a dramatic and beautiful piece of coast. 

We're happy and healthy. 

We are here enjoying our sunset view from the overlook campsite. http://w3w.co/dozing.shareholder.brisk

May 15 - hot and beautiful

Rugged, isolated and too warm for Amy. Tiny fishing villages occasionally have a tiny shop with ice cream and friendly old shopkeeper ladies.

More Streakers (Streaked Shearwaters) seen out at sea today.  We're happy and healthy looking forward to seeing our bears. 

We are here http://w3w.co/economic.hoses.infest

May 14 - Coastal walking is good

We love coastal walking. Beautiful and invigorating. 

We're happy and healthy and tired. The AirBnB last night was a letdown; our first unfavorable AirBnB experience. We had mosquitoes in the room which prevented sleep. James was astute enough to finally set up our tent in the fortuitously large room. That solved the problem as we were zipped inside where they could no longer buzz in our ears.

Today we saw hundreds of Streaked Shearwaters cruising around not far from the top of the cape. This is a life bird for us and an unexpected treat.

We are here http://w3w.co/hatching.angling.raising

May 13 - to Shimoda

Took train to Shimoda at south end of Izu Penninsula. We'll spend next few days walking north along the west coast. 

We're happy and healthy. All is well. 

We are here http://w3w.co/grandson.agreeing.pouting

May 12 - done!

We finished our Tokai hike this afternoon. The last few hours were along the Takao Ridge, which on a nice weather Saturday afternoon is crowded with thousands of hikers from Tokyo awho take the cable car up from the lowlands. A fun and overwhelming scene. 

We're happy and healthy, clean, well fed, tired, satisfied, and wondering what we'll do between now and our flight on May 20. 

We are here in our room at the AirBnB http://w3w.co/alarm.choirs.shoebox

May 11 - Last view of Fuji; first view of Tokyo

Last night's post was rejected by blogspot. I think I hit a limit on size of photo storage. I retried it today with no photos and that worked. So sorry, no more photos.

In the middle of last night an animal that resembled a possum tried to snatch our food. He tore a small hole in the tent. We relocated our tent and gear to the porch of a nearby unoccupied rental bungalow where we could hang the food. 

It's easy to be happy when it's sunny and 60F/15C. Today's hike was great walking in fine forest and, with clear skies, Fuji reappeared. Even when one didn't get a good night's rest the day can turn out well. 

We're happy and healthy and ready sleep. Tomorrow is our final day on this trail. 

We are here http://w3w.co/outrage.oxtails.smoothest

May 10 - beautiful National Park

All day on trails through a mountainous National Park. All great forest. We were on the top of the ridge for most of the day, between 1000 and ~1400 meters. Two species of rhododendrons are in full bloom up on top - one white and one pink. Glorious. 

The top of the ridge is generally created by millennia of landslips on either side, so it's often not much wider than the path, as shown in the photo. 

We wake up at 4:00 and are walking by sunrise at 4:45. Today we were enveloped by cloud and fog until about 10:00 when it turned into rain. Then hail. Then 20 minutes of booming thunderstorm. We're retreated as far off the ridge top as we could get given the steep slopes and waited until the weather front passed and the lightning was no longer a risk. By lunch the rain had stopped and although there was only scattered sun we were no longer inside the cloud. 

We think it will be sunny tomorrow and everything will dry out. 

The deciduous forest and blooming rhododendrons in the mist was a highlight of the trip. 

We're happy and healthy and looking forward to another full day on National Park trails. 

We are camped in space #335 in an otherwise empty campground. http://w3w.co/degrees.clash.cashless

May 9 - no Fuji views today

We have 45 miles and about 17000 feet (5000+ meters) of gain remaining. This route ends with what we think will be great ridge walking. We hope the low clouds lift so we get some distant views. If all goes well we'll push and finish on the 12th.

We met an Osaka-bound Tokai hiker today! Robert from Germany. We wished him well and tried to share some trail notes, but he was so talkative we didn't get to say much :)

We're happy and healthy and drying our tent before we set it up in a discreet corner of a clay tennis court.

First photo show Amy climbing one of the few thousand stairs encountered today, with Mount Fuji 🗻 looming in the background, or not.

May 8 - no Fuji views, but great Fuji forests

Fog and clouds all day, so no views of Fuji as we walk around it's north side. It started to rain just as we reached a small shelter at a big vista point. We ate dinner under the shelter, but no room for the tent in there, so just like last night our tent is adjacent to the picnic shelter.

While eating dinner under the shelter, a male Copper Pheasant put on a show nearby. He did his wing booming and strutted about in the open on top of a large tree stump 15-

20 meters away, giving us terrific looks at a bird we had only seen previously as it flew rapidly away from us. 

As part of protecting Mount Fuji, this region is part of the National Park. We were on great trail all day, walking through natural unmanaged forest. Mixed species and mixed ages. It was beautiful and fun. 

We're happy and healthy and snug in the tent listening to the pitter patter of rain. Only four more days until we reach Tokyo!

We are here 

http://w3w.co/applies.parallels.dayroom

May 7 - Romantic dinner at Family Mart

Fog drip all night and morning, but no rain until after lunch. Then several hours of very light drizzle which did not even warrant rain gear. We stopped at the Family Mart to shop and eat a hot meal at 2:45 right about when it started actually raining. Left at 3:30 and walked until 5:00 in a moderate but steady rain. We headed for a shelter, but it turns out to be very small and entirely filled with a picnic table, so set up the tent next to the shelter and enjoyed our dessert (donut and an experiment with chocolate filled marshmallows) and an alcoholic bubbly grapefruit beverage. 

We LOVE the Family Marts. The ladies behind the counters are always cheerful and welcoming even though we certainly violate every social norm. Most of them have 4-10 seats at a counter or small tables, with electrical outlets. The bathrooms have warm toilet seats and bidets. The have a good selection of picnic food to get us from here to the next Family Mart 23 miles down the trail. And they have a wide variety of pre-made meals that they microwave for us. In many ways they are the antithesis of a "Nature Trail", but they sure make it easier for hikers like us to complete this route. 

The trail continues to be in great condition and is well marked, a remarkable accomplishment given the steep and loose terrain which is prone to erosion and land slips. Today we were in a National Park and had deciduous woods instead of just managed conifers. 

The clouds parted at sunset and we're able to see Fuji from the picnic shelter. It has been blocked all day by clouds until just a few minutes ago. Woo hoo. 

We're happy and healthy and damp. 

We are here http://w3w.co/remarried.plural.unleashes

May 6 - Tenkara fishing

The fishing season has opened for Sweet Fish (we think, based on a sign that included that name in English). We passed one section of river and there were 40 fellows with their Tenkara rods landing dozens of smallish fish. Family groups cheered some of the fishermen on while the children splashed about in the water. 

More up and down. More great weather. More miles of cascading streams. More walking on quiet tarmac roads and some miles on nice easy trails. Not all managed conifer forest as on many prior days, but a good bit with some hardwoods too. Another convenience store stop (Lawson's this time). Not so many shrines and temples per day as in the first half of the hike. 

Oriental Cuckoos still go "poo-poo  poo-poo" incessantly while remaining hidden in the foliage, but one made the mistake of flying through an opening where we got a good look at him, so we no longer have to pay attention to them. 

We're happy and healthy and lucky we had 30 minutes of Fuji view from our campsite at the top of Mount Shishinzan before the clouds filled in. Expecting light rain all day tomorrow. I snitched an umbrella at the market today, so I'm prepared☔️

We are here http://w3w.co/zing.trolley.longbow

May 5 - another glorious day

Saturday at the end of Golden Week and lots of hikers were out on the trail and having picnics by the mountain streams. Nice sunny, mild day and everybody was happy. 

In one of the valley villages we peeked inside a shed where the were processing the freshly harvested tea leaves. 

We saw two more Japanese backpackers, possibly section hiking the Tokai Shizen Hodou. The one this morning had a modern lightweight kit and seemed happy; we chatted briefly. The one this afternoon had a giant pack and looked like he was tired and desperate to keep moving or he might miss his train home; he didn't even pause to say hello. 

We're happy and healthy and tired. 

We are here http://w3w.co/lifeboats.gridded.steeps

May 4 - sunny and cool

About yesterday's questions Hank writes:

Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG-HMAgcoOw

As for the umbrellas, it's called Rental umbrella for free. As long as I know, we have to return it the station, for examples, as we commute the next morning.

By the way, for the next 2 days, the weather looks pretty bad and it will be cold. You and Jim should check the weather forecasting repeatedly.

Take care.

-Hank

About the weather, cool is good for us. The best temperature for hiking is 10-15c. Up to 20 is OK. Over 20 gets unpleasant. Today was perfect. So far we have been lucky that most rain has occurred during the night. Hiking in light rain is OK, but heavy rain is no fun. 

We will stretch the umbrella rules - borrow at one Family Mart and return a day or two later at the next Family Mart 😃. It's a very convenient system! There is rain in the forecast for Monday, so I'll pick up an umbrella on Sunday. 

Family Mart and 7-11s sell the baked egg packs and 10 varieties of rice balls. Regular food markets sell raw eggs and dry rice. These convenience stores are fantastic for hikers!

Farmers are busy harvesting tea during this period of dry weather. Very labor intensive. Makes me appreciate the work that goes into all that tea I drink. Tea fields are aesthetically pleasing. 

We finished the day at the outer edge of town. Good burgers at a shop that makes cheese. Family Mart for supplies. And a beautiful campsite in the flood plane of a big river. We're camped on a grassy level  croquet-golf course. Like mini-golf, but with mallets and croquet balls.  We met a young woman, Corrine, from Montreal who is hiking south on the Tokai from Tokyo; she was a bit reticent about talking about her trip, so we didn't learn much from her. 

We're happy and healthy. It's easy to be happy when it's sunny and 65. 

We are here http://w3w.co/rebirth.repents.nightclub

May 3 - questions for Hank

Today's surprise was a very tiny shop in a mountain hamlet with a cheerful proprietor who used an abacus. She had very few items for sale, but the list included ice cream bars and cold beer, so everybody was happy. 

Hank - in the photo are the things I eat at every picnic meal. I think the item on the right is an egg dish, is that correct?

In front of nearly every bus stop, train station, convenience store, shrine, or temple is a collection of 5-10 umbrellas. We think that they are some sort of community property and that people take one when needed and leave it somewhere when it stops raining. At least that's what Jim heard when he traveled in Japan on business. Hank - is this true? Is it socially acceptable to pick up an umbrella when there are many of them in front of a semi-public building?

We're happy and healthy and camped next to an enormous ginkgo tree on a calm, dry warm night. It rained 3-4" last night and our nice big shelter was in a part of the park that didn't drain, so we had 1 cm of water under the tent this morning; no harm done. 

We are here http://w3w.co/verbal.adjectives.worthier

May 2 - good town stop

Another normal day of walking. We pushed the 13+ miles to the small town of Ueyama without a lunch stop in hopes of finding a good cafe. Success! We found a great pizza/pasta cafe near the train station. First cheese of the entire trip. Not like Europe where cheese is a staple and highlight. 

Found the "supermarket" which was a modest grocery store with absolutely nothing useful to us. It sells ingredients for people who cook, not the food we need. They didn't have beer, so we followed google maps to the liquor store. It's primarily a sake shop with a few cases of beer on the side. A beautiful wooden interior and a very modest exterior. The door was unlocked, lights were off, and nobody responded when we entered and called out loudly. Can you imagine any other country where the liquor store is wide open and untended? That seems like a primary destination for louts. 

We then walked a half mile to the other side of town to the Mini Stop, which consistent with our expectations had everything we needed. 

On the way into town we found a good size picnic shelter on a small hilltop park in the middle of town. 15-18 hours of rain was scheduled to start at 3:00, so we returned to  the shelter to spend the night. 

First Photo shows our $25 sushi + side dishes and liquor picnic dinner purchased at the Mini Stop. 

Second photo shows half our shelter. 

We're happy and healthy and dry and comfortable in our shelter. 

We are here http://w3w.co/cools.absolves.revamping

May 1 -

25 days on the trail. Still no loose dogs and not a single pile of dog shit. This is a very civilized practice and a paradise for hikers. And still nobody honking a car horn or playing loud music. All calm and quiet. 

We had lunch at a little cafe. The proprietor was very enthusiastic and spoke a little English. He told us that a few weeks ago a solo Canadian woman Tokai hiker spent the night camped at the river next to the cafe and ate at his shop. He was happy we were there too. 

Also at the cafe was a young man who is a farmer and spoke English well enough for conversation. He confirmed our observation that most farmers are old and few young people want to become one. He also told us that the value of tea has fallen because the Japanese don't drink as much green tea as they did in the past. We are walking through tea growing hillsides, and some tea plantations have been abandoned and are just growing wild. 

We're happy and healthy and camped inside the Otaki Resting Place shelter. It is the only flat ground in the past 90 minutes of walking. 

We are here http://w3w.co/snacked.probes.certificate