Day 101 (July 22, 2017)

Noheji, Aomori β†’ Mutsu Bay β†’ Mutsu, Aomori

Map of Aomori prefecture with author’s route from Noheji to Mutsu highlighted.

Open map in Gaia GPS β†’

Colorful fishing floats in a heap.
Dozens of pornographic magazines for sale in a convenience store.

A sea wall extends into the distance by a road.

Trees by a road bent by the wind.

πŸ“ Mutsu Yokohama, Aomori

A radiant pink-orange sunset above a street.

A metallic orange Subaru made even more orange by the colors of the sunset.

Two boys, one of them dressed β€” and shaped β€” like a watermelon, play a pair of large drums.

πŸ“ Mutsu, Aomori

A rainy seaside day turned into a candy apple sunset by the time I walked into Mutsu, to the sound of a low drumbeat hammering down its homely streets. Schoolkids were beating out a savage rhythm, practicing for next week’s festival, and I stood off to the side, my chest vibrating with the beat, the children paying me no mind. These were small drums, yet their sound filled the evening, and I imagined the giant taikos, taller than a grown man, and they must rip the world in two. The volcano darkened to indigo, I walked down to the river, and the colors drained from the sky.

A large mountain, Mount Osore, rises above a small town by the water, Mutsu, in the evening light.

πŸ“ Mutsu, Aomori

A manhole cover shows a flock of wild geese flying above a forest.

πŸ“ Mutsu, Aomori
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.