Left Hakodate in excellent spirits, hoping to reach Biei and then to access the Daisetsuzan National Park (see last journal entry). For this I had to change shinkanzen at Sapporo and Asahikawa, in eight hours of train travel (there's a lot of land up here). The scenery is quite wonderful - deep fir woods with patches of the trees in autumn umbers of pale yellow and others of vivid green - with mountains at the edge of everything. I suppose that is what made me want to go on from Hakodate, the range of mountains which seemed to begin lumbering from the southern tip of Hokkaido (the name of this island) to the north. Also, there's some folklore that Japan, which cartographically does suggest it, is actually a quiescent dragon, and Hokkaido its head. So, roughly, ... read more

Quite exhausted, and not really into this entire blogging thing. This account will be written plainly, without a lot of effort. Hope that's okay. I think, perhaps, I'm suffering from a sensory overload, it's put me into a little funk (not the disco kind). Anyway, I shall begin recording details here, as it's easier. I've also been doing a tremendous amount of walking, and am losing sloughs of weight. Hint - if you're carrying a few extra pounds, don't go on a diet, go on a backpacking holiday! Well, anyway, please take for granted that I have somehow ended up in Hakodate, on Hokkaiddo. I had an amazing first weekend in Tokyo, but to explain all of that would take too much time. So the journal begins now ... Hakodate is a large port town, south ... read more