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First rain and Typhoon
99.09.24/ Temperature: 11C/ Weather: Rain
Start: Teshikaga/Latitude: unmeasurable/Longitude: unmeasurable
Destination: Akan Town Line /Latitude: unmeasurable/Longitude: unmeasurable
Distance Traveled: 20 K
After 157 km of moving southwest, I will be heading straight west. Signs point to the west showing the way to Akan from Teshikaga. The morning greeted me with rain. A small puddle at my feet told me that today was going to be a wet one.
Tomorrow I will be heading up over the mountain pass to reach Lake Akan, 37 km; I'll go as far as my feet and the weather will allow me.
Leaving Teshikaga this morning I finally lost scent of the ocean. Until now I felt that the Sea of Okhotsk is looking over my shoulder as I walked, but today as I headed west on the Cross-Akan Road) this feeling slipped away. Walking away from the small center of Teshikaga, grass fields surrounded me on both sides. These fields soon gave way to the forest of Akan.
The air in the forest was so clean it was rejuvenating to my fatigued body. I thought back to the days spent training for this project. I used to run in Tokyo alongside fume spouting trucks until I could escape the fumes in the green of Koganei Park. The air here beats that of even Koganei Park, not to mention all of Tokyo. Unfortunately, the fresh air here too can send you coughing if you get caught in a tunnel with a few cars and tourist buses.
The fresh smell of rain was also refreshing. As nice as the rain was, the light showers throughout the day, reminded me that the typhoon front is nearing Hokkaido. How are the rest of you throughout Japan? I heard that there were several fatalities in Kumamoto and am worried about participant groups down that way. Please let me know how you are all doing.
This time of years is generally "typhoon season" in Japan. The southern and western regions of Japan are hit several times by the annual typhoons. Typhoons are merely one of many natural disasters that cause problems for Japan, others including: land slides, earthquakes, tsunami, and volcanoes. I am curious about what kind of natural disasters all of you have to deal with. Are there any measures that have been taken to prevent such disasters? Is there any wisdom that is used to deal with such disasters? Since few typhoons reach Hokkaido, is there any wisdom you in other areas of Japan have to offer people in Hokkaido about typhoons? I'm sure any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Since the typhoon is closing in on Hokkaido and I walked for 8 days and 157 km., I have decided to take it easy tomorrow as my first rest day.
Greg
PS. I should be able to collect some information about Akan Lakes's famous Marimo on my day off.
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