Katsuyama, Fukui β†’ Shiramine, Ishikawa

Map of Fukui and Ishikawa Prefectures with author’s route from Katsuyama to Shiramine highlighted. πŸ—Ί Open map in GaiaGPS β†’


Stone statue of a cartoon-like dinosaur on a sunlit street.

Neatly stacked firewood in an open shed.

Manhole cover showing a theropod dinosaur.

A traditional Japanese house with a garden of blooming azalea bushes. πŸ“ Katsuyama, Fukui


Fog over freshly planted rice paddies.

Head of a theropod dinosaur looking at a foggy forest.

Green and yellow snowplows in an open garage. πŸ“ Kitadani, Fukui

The clear skies over Katsuyama clouded over theatrically, and I watched the downpour hammer the azaleas from the windows of the bathhouse. When the rain petered out, I walked out into the misty gloom and up the pass which separated the prefectures of Fukui and Ishikawa. It may have been at the latitude of Gibraltar and Mosul, but monstrous snowplows lined the road, hinting at the mountains of snow which blanket the land in the winter. As night fell in the cedar forest, a bear jumped from the undergrowth and disappeared into the darkness.

These Walking Dreams is a visual field diary of a 4,300-kilometer walk from one end of Japan to the other, in the spring and summer of 2017.