The Plan

The Grass Pillow (草枕,くさまくら）is the name of a book by Meiji-era Japanese writer Natsume Soseki.  It describes the travels and interactions of a lone traveller inhabiting a guest house in the mountains in Japan.  It is one of a list of books inspiring this trip, amongst the travel diaries of Matsuo Bashyo ('Narrow Road to the Deep North', 'Record of a Travel-worn Satchel', 'Record of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton'), the surreal landscapes of 'Kafka on the Shore' and 'The Windup Bird Chronicle' by Haruki Murakami and the numerous travel sketches of Hiroshige and Hokusai.

My plan in general is to travel in rural areas as much as possible, to visit as many people as possible and appreciate the small subtle elements that these great artists focussed upon.

The general plan is:
March 10 - arrive in Osaka, stay with friends from Uen Guesthouse.
March 12 - begin a long train journey to Kita-Kyushu via Hiroshima
March 15 - Unzen National Park via Nagasaki
March 17 - Stay with a sweet man with a cliff-side ocean lodge in Amakusa
March 19-26 - Hike amongst the Japanese Cedar in Yakushima after Kagoshima's ash-covered streets
March 30 - Matsuyama
April 1 - Hike the Iya Valley, Shikoku
April 9 - my parents arrive for a Spring time road trip
April 10 - Amanohashidate
April 12-15 - Fukui coast
April 16-17 - Takayama Spring Festival
April 22 - Prepare for the Kumano Kodo
April 24-May 5 - Hike the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage from Koya-san (Wakayama-ken) to Ise-jingu (Mie-ken)
May 6-11 - stay in Osaka, or money permitting get to Okinawa on the way to Taiwan
May 12-16 - Taiwan
May 17- Phnom Pen wet season madness
May 22-23 - Kuala Lumpur
May 26 - Return home