πŸš‰ Kuroiwa Station, Hokkaido β†’ Oshamanbe, Hokkaido β†’ Rebunge, Toyoura, Hokkaido

Map of Hokkaido with author’s route from Kuroiwa Station to Rebunge highlighted. πŸ—Ί Open map in GaiaGPS1 β†’


A man in board shorts watches the waves from a raised platform.

Panorama of Uchiura Bay looking north, towards a distant line of hazy mountains.

Gabor walks barefoot in the surf.

Looking back on the beach, two pairs of footprints recede into the distance. πŸ“ Kunnui, Hokkaido

Surf was up on the great, flat expanse of Uchiura Bay, and the men who weren’t in wetsuits were shirtless and tanned, a juxtaposition of subtropical Japan on the not-so-icy north. After two days of walking on the side of National Route 5 we shed our shoes and rushed to the sea, and the roar of trucks was replaced with that of the waves rolling in from the open ocean. For brief moments, the long, invisible line in our wake was made visible, and our skin crackled in the hot sun.


Gabor drinks a glass of water in a restaurant as a waiter approaches with two trays of food. πŸ“ Ōhama, Oshamanbe, Hokkaido


A red cartoon crab balances on a light pole.

The same crab, the emblem of Oshamanbe Town, on a sign.

A white railing completely rusted through in places. πŸ“ Oshamanbe, Hokkaido

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.

  1. Gabor took the evening train from Oshamambe to Sapporo, to prepare for a job interview. I walked on by myself for the next three days and re-joined him in Sapporo on the evening of August 1. From there we walked together to the end of our journey in Nemuro.β†©οΈŽ