It's Been Way Too Long...

First off, I should apologize to anyone who actually cares and reads this blog. I have been so awful about updating this blog. I've been busy traveling on medical school related business for the past two weeks, but still, I should have taken some time to organize my life and post some updates on here. By the way, anyone who is interested in my more general ramblings about medical school and life should check out my other page Paging Dr. Bad. 

Now for the fun stuff. I'm actually buying most of the rest of my gear for the trip right now on Backcountry. Anyone interested in doing any sort of outdoors activities should check out their online store. They have a ton of stuff, much of it on sale, and you can return almost anything at anytime. I also bought some items at my local Eastern Mountain Sports store yesterday, including another SmartWool merino baselayer, a SIGG water bottle, some moisture wicking socks, a pair of NorthFace shorts and a pair of convertible pants. I'm doing pretty well in terms of what I need, but it's coming down to the wire and I need to buy the rest of what I need ASAP so I can be sure I haven't forgotten anything. 

The gaps in places to stay I talked about in my last post (way back when) are still there, staring at me every time I check my list of accommodations. But that's OK. I'm going to bring a sleeping pad and bag as well as a Bivy. If Plan A fails (asking at the Tourist Information Center via my Japanese Phrase Book) then I'll try Plan B (looking like a nice, lost gaijin who needs a floor to sleep on). And if Plan B fails, well, I'll be sleeping behind a shrine or on the train station bench. But as the Walking Fool kindly reminded me, when I sleep outside, I need to be sure I do it in a place that doesn't have any signs warning me about the local bears! I'm not sure exactly what those look like, or if I'll even be able to read them, but I imagine they have a picture of an angry bear on them somewhere. Ahhh adventure. All I can say is I will make sure to stealth camp or sleep nojuku in a relatively urban/suburban area. Think outskirts of town or under the eaves of a train station rather than the middle of the bear infested woods.

So - I'm going to stop being such a bum and start posting on this thing regularly as my trip approaches. It's hard to believe that I'm only 2 weeks away from flying to another country to walk over 300 miles. To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, and I think that's OK. Tomorrow I'm going to talk a little bit about what I think traveling solo will mean to me; good and bad. I'm also going to post my plan for keeping in shape while I'm on the trip. On my other page I've been posting about my plan to gain some weight (think Vin Diesel not Oprah). Also look forward to my updated gear list in a bit, that along with pictures from a few of my training walks. Until then, thanks for reading.

Estimated Distance Walked Since Last Update: 65 miles

Total Distance Walked: 123.28 miles

Revising The Gear List

With only 10 days to go, I need to finalize my gear list (amongst many other pressing matters), to make sure that I can grab every last little thing I need before I leave for Japan. I've got a mega-order coming in from Backcountry tomorrow, but there are still a bunch of odds and ends I want to grab to make my trip run as smooth as possible. Below is the much updated list. Let me know if you see something you think I need.

• Backpack: Osprey Aether 70 (Emerald Green)
• Sleeping Bag: Big Agnes Summer Bag 
• Sleeping Pad: Big Agnes Air Pad
• Shelter: Bibler Bivy Sack
• Rain Jacket: Cabela's Gore-Tex Pac-Lite Rainy River Parka (Tall)
• Rain Pants: Cabela's Gore-Tex Pac-Lite Rainy River Pants (Tall)
• Hiking Boots: Merrell Chameleon Evo Gore-Tex XCR; Nike Air-Pegasus
• Boot/Shoe Inserts: SuperFeet Green and SuperFeet Orange
• Sandals: Teva Tera Fi II (Black)
• Glasses: Rx RayBan Aviator Sunglasses; Two Pairs Rx Glasses
• Hat: Yankees Cap 
• Undergarments/Base Layers: SmartWool Micro Long Sleeve; SmartWool Medium Long Sleeve; 2 NorthFace Flight Series Synthetic T-Shirt; 2 Patagonia Wool1 Merino Short Sleeve Shirts; Underarmor Boxers
  
• Pants/Shorts: 1 EMS Excursion Convertible Pants; 2 Arcteryx Long Shorts; 1 The North Face Hiking Shorts
• Fleece: The North Face Denali Fleece
• Hiking Socks: SmartWool PhD Medium Socks; Wicking Socks 
  
• Stuff/Dry Sacks: 
• First Aid Kit: (To Buy)
• Sunscreen/Lipbalm:
• Earplugs: Hearos
• Camera: Cannon Powershot (Including Case and Charger)
• Maps: Google Map Printouts; Japanese Cartoon Map; Guidebook
• Map Case: (To Buy)
• Compass: (To Buy)
• Guide Books: Lonely Plantet Japan
• Phrase Books: (To Buy)
• Cell Phone: Rentaphone (To Order)
• Swimming Trunks: 
• Towel: Micro Backpacking Towel
• Water Bottle: 2x 1 Liter Water Bottle
• Snacks: Trail Mix (To Buy)
• Beer

I Have a Plan - Sort Of

It's been a long time since I've updated this page, mostly because I've been crazy busy for the past two weekends, which is when I usually get to update it. I've also been busy booking places to stay on the trip, and I'd say I'm a little more than half way through that process, which is pretty good. I have some gaps in there though, and I'm trying to figure out how exactly I'm going to go about sleeping in those cases. As I see it there a few options.

My first option (which is really a group of related options) is to either fax or call the places I haven't been able to book online through sites like Rakuten. Fax is a better option, as I've heard generally Japanese speakers are often more comfortable with written English. The downside is I don't really have anywhere where I can fax the document and wait to make sure I get the return fax. And although my Japanese is improving in very basic scenarios thanks to JapanesePod, I'm not quite delusional or drunk enough at the moment to think I can call one of these places up and sound coherent. My friend Yuuji has offered to call some of the places up for me and take care of it in Japanese for me, and in some of the busier areas where things might get filled up, I may take him up on that offer. Another thought is to try and have some of my previous hotels, or even the Tourist Information Center at Narita Airport to call them up on my behalf.

My second option is to try and book a place using my extremely limited Japanese at the Tourist Information Centers that are located by the train station in most towns throughout Japan. This could be difficult - I'm well aware most of the clerks won't speak a word of English. The thought of me standing there repeating minshuku or ryokan to a confused attendant is somewhat funny though. And I'm thinking with a phrasebook it's possible that I could pull this one off in a bind.

The third option, which I'm considering more and more, is to simply attempt stealth camping or nojuku, which is what my friend over at 546km is planning on doing for the whole trip. In places like the Kiso Valley, I think this might be my only option if I can't find a place to stay. Figuring out gear for this scenario is a little more complicated though, and I really don't want to carry all the extra weight of a tent for limited use. One thing I've considered is just going the way of many ultra-light hikers and using a bivy as a shelter. One option I definitely don't want to pursue is sleeping outside, no shelter, in the rain. 

All in all I will probably pursue a mixture of all three options and see where that takes me. Sleeping outside could potentially suck, depending on weather and the availability of stealth camping sites. But it may also be a great cost saver in a country where even budget accommodations aren't very budget. More to come, including pictures of an Appalachian Trail Hike I've done a few times over the past few weeks.

Estimated Distance Walked Since Last Post: 39 miles

Total Distance Walked: 58.28 miles