2025-10-27 08:00:00
Ridgeline subscribers —
Hello from the other side of my ~220 kilometer walk through the Kiso Valley.
I sent a shorter version of this newsletter as the last issue of the (the entire walk is) Between Two Mountains pop-up newsletter. This version is quite expanded. The archives of the B2M pop-up are available to SPECIAL PROJECTS members on the members’ site. And if you’d like to follow along in my digital footsteps, the GPX file of the walk is here.
2025-09-26 08:00:00
Ridgeline subscribers —
It’s time for another walk. A walk down a valley — a valley I’ve walked many times before (not a metaphor!), but one I love and so one very much worth: A rewalk. A double rewalk, even.
I’m heading out to walk 100 kilometers south-north along the Kiso-ji in Nagano, and then turning around and walking 100 kilometers back, north-south along the same route. Of course, I’m running a pop-up newsletter connected with the walk. It’s called (the entire walk is) Between Two Mountains and you can sign up here.
2025-09-11 08:00:00
Ridgeline subscribers —
In a bizarre confluence of Japan-based media coincidence, I’m on the cover of Papersky’s latest issue (where I walk around Yamaguchi with their team) and also have an article / portrait (alongside Cate Blanchett, natch) in UNIQLO’s latest LifeWear Magazine. LifeWear is available for free at all UNIQLO stores worldwide. Every issue is bilingual, and they localize the non-Japanese translations by locale. So you can read my article in Spanish in Spain, in French in France, and in Australian in Australia. I believe the circulation number I was quoted — i.e., the number of issues printed — is something like 5,000,000. It’s an insane and impressive media operation and I’m delighted to take part. The LifeWear team was lovely to work with.
2025-09-03 08:00:00
Ridgeline subscribers —
About a year since I last visited — and now nine months since Toyama, my pick, was selected as one of the New York Times’ “52 Places to Visit” in 2025 — I returned to Blue Train.
Blue Train opened in 1980, about the same time I opened. The owners are even older than you might think (they pleaded with me not to tell you their precise ages), the shop having been opened later in their lives than you might guess. I was back in Toyama to see the Etchū Owara Kaze no Bon festival up in the village of Yatsuo, at which I spent about eight hours on Monday night. It was amazing — very special — I’ll write more about it later. But this was also a trip to say hello to all the shops I put on the 52-Places list, to check in, to make sure I hadn’t ruined their lives. 1
2025-09-02 08:00:00
Roden Readers —
Ahoy from Crisptown, population: Everyone in Japan. The summer is done. Thank glorious gods be, the summer is done. (Mostly.) I can feel my brain starting to solidify again, returning to its natural state after three months of relentless broiled liquefaction.
In honor of sane mercury and humidity readings, I’m heading off on a 200-kilometer walk and running a pop-up newsletter: (the entire walk is) Between Two Mountains starts on October 2 (Which is today! I meant to send this three weeks ago, then last week, and then yesterday, but here were are, me on the Shinkansen en route to Nagoya, finally sending it, a few hours before I start walking.). You can sign up here. For those keeping track, this is my first “real” walk since May 2024, when I walked the Tōkaidō at an Edo era pace (about forty klicks a day). It’s been too long!
2025-08-26 08:00:00
Ridgeline subscribers —
A few nights ago, on a lark, Sam Holden — public bath and Onomichi specialist, urbanist and translator — and I, amidst a post-dinner stroll through Tokyo, decided to “walk through Shibuya.” I try with all my might to avoid Shibuya as one might avoid french-kissing a running blender (or scraping a kidney stone along one’s ureter). At best, I’ll skirt the edges, but I’m always happy to take a more circuitous train or walking route simply to avoid the station and its immediate envrions. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some great spots in Shibuya — little record shops and old bars and a few old kissa, the much beloved Lion, of course — but the whole of the thing, the “heart” of the place, has been compromised by redevelopment (with more to come) to such a degree that it makes it feel like all the hangers-on have some terminal disease. So to save this delicate heart of mine, I don’t go. But maybe it was worth a looksie?