We both confess to complete and utter madness, but we've been having a whale of a time -- and not only down in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, where the International Whaling Commission had its recent roughhouse, and where we completely pigged out on kujira no niku (whale meat) before heading on to Kyushu.
Mary and I have now been on Japan's roads just over a year, the two of us waddling along in the most ridiculous attire, dragging cumbersome luggage trolleys behind us. Many people mistake us for garbage collectors or think we're painting lines on the roads, and when we explain about our Japan on Foot project and our footslog from Cape Soya, the northernmost point of Hokkaido, to the undersea ruins of what may be the legendary Land of Mu at Japan's southernmost extremity, our listeners invariably raise a terrified eyebrow or two and ask if we're from some sort of cult.
Our zigzag plod kicked off on May 9 last year, and within three weeks Mary feared we wouldn't even make it to Nayoro in Hokkaido's north.