05 May 2021, 20:53

Finished Walking Day 20

It’s now nearly 4am Thursday 6 May 2021 (according to my computer). To my feet and legs, it’s early on Walkday. My brain knows it is now Day 21, but this entry is about Day 20:

I did not take many pictures on Day 20, compared to other days. Photographs seem to happen more in the morning, but as I get tireder and tireder from walking, the pictures taper off as I’m like bah, who cares about seeing more flowers that are not really differentiatable from other pics I have taken.

Day 20 things:

  • saw a two car train and tried to take a video but realized later I apparently did not hit record until after the train went by.
  • saw species of little yellow flowers that I had not seen before
  • talked to Brian in Corpus for about an hour while sharing stories of mapping. Very fun talking with him as we have similar senses of humor.
    1. “everything was going fine until I talked to those guys in Corpus”
    1. “here’s your diploma!” after walking through flowerbed on campus
  • almost recorded Joetsu Line shinkansen, albiet far away
  • Surprised to see Doge is up to 77 yen, and has gone up 11000% just in 2021.
  • Installed Folding@Home and signed up for the Doge team https://www.dogecoinfah.com/doc/gettingstarted.html#getstarted on my laptop and on my Vultr server (pinning its CPU to 100% (up from 4% over the past years))
  • Nearly weaned myself off aidungeon.io, helped by the response “The AI doesn’t know what to say. Alter, undo, or try again.”
  • Walked across Shinano River with water pouring through Myokan Weir, a word I did not know the meaning.

Day 20 was:

  • Day Twenty (Wednesday May 5th *) 1 part:
    Walk 13km, From Ojiya Park Hotel To 旅館 竹花屋 (310km walked so far)

Walk 13km from Ojiya Park Hotel to 旅館 竹花屋

29 Apr 2021, 07:44

OMG I did not know the ways this trip would be difficult

I had a good cry this morning with Shraddhan on our daily call.

  • callous on my right foot despite wearing sandals
  • long-ass walk yesterday 6 hours through the hills after 2 hours on the highway
  • crying last night because I could not figure out how to put together my futon
  • sandals ripping almost apart yesterday
  • not able to find the photo I took yesterday
  • not getting the photo I wanted (and basically too late to go back)
  • camera could not use 32GB card
  • and it’s raining today

Plan for yesterday was

Will use:

Will not use:

Notice the tunnels on Highway 17 (Mikuni Highway), south of Obansanja Shrine. Along 17, I will take a trail starting here, hike around the tunnels, past Obansanja Shrine, and finish the trail here.

You may notice there is another tunnel looking thing, but it has a sidewalk next to it.

Walk 14kmfrom Sports Inn Fujiyato Family House Akashiya

27 Apr 2021, 20:11

Day 12 finished (photos)

It is late on Day 12 and I just finished uploading Day 9 and Day 11 photos..

Day 12 will have to wait. Day 12 photos have been uploaded to Smugmug for now

https://thunderrabbit.smugmug.com/Travel/Japan/Quests/2021-walk-to-Niigata/Day-12-2021-april-27/

2021 apr 27 1829 dinner fujiya 2021 apr 27 1830 dinner with son

Here was the plan for Day Twelve

Oh nooo the Bungy jump location seems to be closed April 27th!!

27 Apr 2021, 19:41

Day 13 will likely be challenging

Here are thumbnails of the trails I plan to use for Day Thirteen, 28 April 2021:

2021 apr 25 Day 13 of eight 1 2021 apr 25 Day 13 of eight 2 2021 apr 25 Day 13 of eight 3 2021 apr 25 Day 13 of eight 4 2021 apr 25 Day 13 of eight 5 2021 apr 25 Day 13 of eight 6 2021 apr 25 Day 13 of eight 7 2021 apr 25 Day 13 of eight 8

26 Apr 2021, 18:41

Day 11 finished (photos)

Old school fire hydrant

2021 apr 26 hydrant from 1992

Fancy new curb caught my eye. Why was this section redone?

2021 apr 26 fancy new curb

This may be a manhole cover of an eggplant carrying a telescope.

2021 apr 26 manhole cover with water character holding telescope

A bridge for Akane

2021 apr 26 akane bridge

I thought these leaves were cute and wish I had made them more visible. It was quite sunny therefore difficult to see what the screen was seeing

2021 apr 26 little bitty leaves

François on a truck scale

2021 apr 27 François on truck scale 2021 apr 27 François not registering on the scale

We have walked quite a bit!

2021 apr 27 one hundred fifty-nine kilometers from tokyo

Wow that solar panel is big for just one support..

2021 apr 27 weirdly supported solar panel

Oh it rotates and tilts to follow the sun!

2021 apr 27 solar panel rotator

It made small adjustments every 30 seconds or so

2021 apr 27 solar panel tilter

Flowers

2021 apr 27 non specific shape of flowers 2021 apr 27 v specific shape of flowers 2021 apr 27 less specific shape of flowers

Rivers

2021 apr 27 curvy river 2021 apr 27 straight river maybe

What does this say?

2021 apr 27 warning sign

2021 apr 27 bridge behind trees 2021 apr 27 red bridge 2021 apr 27 under trees under bridge 2021 apr 27 spinner thingie 2021 apr 27  map near yumotokan

Here was the plan for Day Eleven

Will likely visit 上州たかやま 田んぼアート (field art) for photos!

Including through a tunnel with a narrow sidewalk..

Will pass Meigetsu Orchards

Will pass 7-Eleven Minakami Fuse Shop

26 Apr 2021, 15:45

Arrived in Yumotokan Day 11

Yay just arrived in Yumotokan. The host said the onsen is very hot.

Lots of pics on the way here, but first wash feet, contact Jason, maybe have dinner with him.

Oh, maybe I can start them uploading… oh but I want to name the photos.

I can pop them up to cloud and deal with them “later”, hopefully sooner!

Here are the paper maps I used to walk today. Most of them have segments labeled with the number of (left) footsteps I took during each segment.

2021 apr 26 paper maps 01 from midorinomura 2021 apr 26 paper maps 02 to kodaira meat shop 2021 apr 26 paper maps 03 to pocket park 2021 apr 26 paper maps 04 tunnel past pocket park 2021 apr 26 paper maps 05 past meigetsu orchards 2021 apr 26 paper maps 06 to ramen restaurant closed 2021 apr 26 paper maps 07 west past iroha 2021 apr 26 paper maps 08 to yumotokan

26 Apr 2021, 14:14

François on pallets of crushed cans

Hang on.. is that a recycling center?

2021 apr 27 pallets at a recycling center

Indeed it is!

2021 apr 27 closeup of pallets with crushed cans

François would like to have a seat here

2021 apr 27 François sitting on crushed cans

I believe these are steel cans

2021 apr 27 recognizable branding on steel cans

I think these are for oil

2021 apr 27 recycled oil cans

How do they collect this many of the same type of can?

2021 apr 27 fuel cans maybe 2021 apr 27 crushed paint thinner cans maybe dunno

rusted cans hmm I wonder how long these have been here

2021 apr 27 François tired of sitting on cans

26 Apr 2021, 14:11

Little Road after Akane Tunnel

Past the tunnel, I turned left on a little street which I assume was here long before the tunnel.

Lots of interesting things to see, including some free cedar logs!

2021 apr 27 cedar logs ready to go

don’t throw rubbish here. This character will be sad if you do!

2021 apr 27 cute character requesting cleanliness

I could not see anything on this sign (but dirt)

2021 apr 27 sign with nothing on it

Ya might want to turn here

2021 apr 27 small sign tight curve

I wonder how this tree was shattered. I would guess lightning but I don’t see scorch marks

2021 apr 27 kinda destroyed tree

Found an opportunity for a selfie

2021 apr 27 fine young man indicated by arrow

Ya might want to ignore this sign

2021 apr 27 hol up

I thought these small ferns were cute

2021 apr 27 ferny mc ferns

I guess this cart plans to stay here a while

2021 apr 27 cart plans to stay

From where does this water come?

2021 apr 27 magic water pipe

François at construction site

2021 apr 27 François at construction site

The first little road ended here

2021 apr 27 end of the first little road

start of the second little road

2021 apr 27 second little road starts here

Apple trees, prepping to make apples

2021 apr 27 apples coming soon

Looking back at the start of the third little road

2021 apr 27 top of the third little road

Blue roof and yellow flowers

2021 apr 27 blue roof yellow flowers

This hill looks positively pointy.. I wonder what the tip is like when standing there?

2021 apr 27 neat little pointy hill

Red roof within apple orchards

2021 apr 27 strikingly red roof

cute pond and concrete for what? I wanted to put François on it, but decided it was too far away from the edges of the pond to do safely, and the locals might wonder what I was doing..

2021 apr 27 cute little pond

I tried to get the cloud reflection here

2021 apr 27 reflection of clouds i hope

26 Apr 2021, 12:13

Went through my first tunnel

My first tunnel!

2021 apr 26 akane tunnel coming soon 2021 apr 26 akane tunnel looming larger

2021 apr 26 akane tunnel built in 1998

2021 apr 26 near the midpoint of the tunnel

Fortunately I had earplugs

2021 apr 26 me in akane tunnel

Back into reality

2021 apr 26 exited akane tunnel 2021 apr 26 from road looking up at akane tunnel

26 Apr 2021, 11:13

Quiz: what is this?

Top of Shinkansen tunnel

Quiz: what is this? Not the cloud, the black surface on the ground.