Regular readers may recall two years ago I ran in the Tokyo marathon and swore I'd never run another marathon. Well I have to eat those words now as I ran my second full marathon last Sunday in Omachi, a town north of Matsumoto. The memory of the pain...

I have written on this blog before about hiking in Japan. I enjoy it and am very lucky to be in the middle of the Japan Alps and have so many places to hike. The mountains I have climbed in Japan, though quite high, have not been too challenging in...