Things I’m doing right now. Updated 17th February, 2023.

The latest post is here.

• Nakasendo – Nihonrain Imawatari to Unuma

For more posts scroll down here.

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Living

• Living in Kasugai, central Japan, just outside Nagoya.

Doing

• Rucking (walking around the neighbourhood for 7kms or so with a backpack weighing 20% of my body weight).
• Walking/hiking/cycling. There’s a hiking/walking route map here.
• Looking after my daughter full time. She needs attention, attention, attention.
• Making contact sheets of photos taken since 1995. I don’t trust digital/the cloud to keep my memories safe.
• Walking the old Nakasendō and Kiso-ji routes in central Japan. Finished walking the Kiso-ji for the first time in late November 2021.
• Running a summer and spring homestay program to the Gold Coast, Australia for Japanese children.
• Staying as fit as possible. My fitness has declined as my responsibility towards my daughter has increased. But I still run, cycle, hike, or walk most days.
• Running our private English school with my wife.

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Books Currently Reading (2022)

For Japanese photography books go here.

• Cloudstreet – Tim Winton (reread).

Books Read in 2022

• On Being a Photographer – David Hurn & Bill Jay
• The Magic & Mystery of Birds – Noah Stryker
• A Death in the Family – Karl Ove Knausgaard
• Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North – Rachel JoyceConscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind – Annaka Harris
• A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson
• A Walk in Japan: The 1910 Travelogue of Bernhard Kellermann – Bernhard Kellermann
• The Ten Foot Square Hut and Tales of the Heike – A.L Sadler
• Night Boat to Tangier – Kevin Barry
• The Playground of the Far East – Walter Westin (reread)
• Down Under – Bill Bryson
• Heaven – Mieko Kawakami
• People From My Neighborhood- Hiromi Kawakami
• Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
• The Secret World of Weather – Tristan Gooley
• The Comfort Crisis – Michael Easter
• The Courage to be Happy – Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
• Nightwalk: A Journey to the Heart of Nature – Chris Yates
• How to Connect with Nature – Tristan Gooley and The School of Life (reread)
• The Courage to be Disliked – Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
• Quicksand – Junichiro Tanizaki
• On Assignment – James R. Larison
• Modern Instances: The Craft of Photography – Stephen Shore
• Summer – Karl Ove Knausgaard
• A Pound of Pictures – Alec Soth
• When We Cease to Understand the World – Benjamin Labutut
• A Simpler Life – The School of Life
• Photographs That Make You Think: Humans – Henry Carroll
• The Ministry of the Future – Kim Stanley Robinson
• Read This If You Want To Take Great Photographs Of People – Henry Carroll
• Read This If You Want To Take Great Photographs Of Places – Henry Carroll
• Spring – Karl Ove Knausgaard
• A Notebook for Everyday Adventures – Alastair Humphreys
• Contented Dementia – Oliver James
• The Way of Zen – Alan Watts

Books Read in 2021

• Winter – Karl Ove Knausgaard
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce
• The View From Breast Pocket Mountain – Karen Anton Hill
• This Life: Why Mortality Makes Us Free  – Martin Hägglund
• Something Strange Across the River – Kafu Nagai
• Radically Condensed Instructions for Being Just as You Are  – J Matthews
• Teach Yourself to Live: The classic guide to finding happiness – C G L Du Cann
• Four Thousand Weeks: Embrace your limits. Change your life – Oliver Burkeman
• The Backyard Adventurer – Beau Miles
• Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion – Jia Tolentino
• Wanderlust: A History of Walking – Rebecca Solnit
• Cloudstreet – Tim Winton
• The Turning – Tim Winton
• The Snow Leopard – Peter Matthiessen
• The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland (The Grampian Quartet Book 3) – Nan Shepherd
• 日本人の心がわかる日本語 (アスク出版) (Japanese Edition) – 森田　六郎
• The Unmapped Country: Stories and Fragments – Ann Quin
• Summer: Winner of the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021 (Seasonal Quartet Book 4) – Ali Smith
• Two Meals a Day: The Simple, Sustainable Strategy to Lose Fat, Reverse Aging, and Break Free from Diet Frustration Forever – Mark Sisson
• The Tales of Ise (Penguin Classics) – Peter MacMillan
• History of Japan: Revised Edition – Richard Mason
• Lanny: LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019 – Max Porter
• Zen: The Art of Simple Living – Shunmyo Masuno
• Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (Canons Book 57) – Annie Dillard
• Rashomon and Other Stories – Ryunosuke Akutagawa