Diaries

I like going on long walks. On some of my walks I kept field diaries. Visual field diary might be a better term: they’re constructed around photos and the occasional video. Two of them were originally published on Instagram, which I no longer use, then cleaned up and archived here.

My diaries are also my main outlet for photography, something I enjoy despite being no good at it. But walking makes the world so beautiful that even a fool with a leaden index finger can take decent photos if he keeps his eyes open, as I usually try to do, and carries a good camera.

This page lists all my field diaries that are online in any form.

Last update: February 24, 2025

Human Again (2022)

A series of three longer dispatches I wrote on a 640-kilometer walk across Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s four main islands, in August and September 2022. It was the second stage of my walk around of Japan.

Shikoku Field Diary (2019)

A field diary I kept in January and February 2019 on the 500-kilometer walk across Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four main islands, that became the subject of The Wilds of Shikoku, my first book.

These Walking Dreams (2017)

A field diary I kept on a 4,300-kilometer walk from one end of Japan to the other, in the spring and summer of 2017. It was the first stage of my walk around Japan.

Travels in Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan (2016)

Pictures from a three-month journey in Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan, including an 850-kilometer walk across the Zagros Mountains, in the spring of 2016.