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As many of you know, my main job is guiding in North Japan. If any of you will be in Japan and up for a 1-day adventurous trip into the volcanic glory of North Japan, consider coming up between mid April and early June! We'll start with a number of tours in on 4/17 to 4/19, and then have this on demand until the season comes to a close around June 8th. Hit me up with any questions! (And even if you're not in Japan this spring, take a peak at this little two-minute ad I made - it may inspire you to put this on your list of things to experience next year!)

Book the tour on Viator here or contact me directly!

 https://www.viator.com/tours/Iwate-Prefecture/Volcanic-Wonders-and-Scenic-Trails/d50147-5501054P5?medium=social-share-copy 

I wrote an article on foraging for wild vegetables in Iwate for the latest issue of Outdoor Japan!

I also wrote a lengthy article for Sake Today about the glory of Iwate, the Last Frontier. 

The Outdoor Japan article is available online :
  https://www.outdoorjapan.com/activities/travel/foodie-travel/foraging-for-spring-sansai/ 

Last month I guided a YouTuber couple on a snowshoeing hike to see the snow monsters. They made a video of the entire experience of going on the hike, staying at my Airbnb, and exploring the city of Morioka! I love love love their video, and I think you might as well!

I've been really busy recently with guiding and some other tourism-related work. While this means I've had a lot less time to make videos, it's a very good thing and I'm happy and relieved after such a long dry period during the pandemic. Things will calm down in mid-April for a bit and I'll catch up with my backlog!

I'm also working with Haruo-san to organize some foraging tours, which I'll post about soon! 

Upcoming Q&A Video - Ask Me Anything!

It's been more than a year since my last Q&A video, and travel to Japan is finally possible again. I thought this would be a good time to answer any questions you might have about travel in north Japan (or elsewhere in Japan), about hiking in Japan, gear, culture, my experience here, or anything really!

I'll do my best to make a video answering your questions later this month (or in January at the latest).

You can ask via the comments here, via DM on Instagram (instagram.com/quinlan) or Twitter (twitter.com/GoNorthJ) or email through this channel! In fact - if you'd like to send an audio clip of your question as an email attachment- I may use that in the video.

Thanks! 

Every summer I visit my favorite ruins at least once. It's a lot of fun to share some of these wild locations with friends that have recently moved to the area. This time I brought my new friends Pete and Takemi. (These photos were taken by Pete- he's a professional photographer. Check out his Instagram!  https://www.instagram.com/peteleongphotography/  )

If you're interested in learning more about this particular location, I made an unlisted video there about a year ago for my Patreon feed. (It doesn't show up in searches and is ad-free, but anyone with a link can see it.) It's been a year now, so I don't mind sharing this generally. Here's the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqw8h... 

Had a great time talking to the people that were able to tune in for the livestream from 2,038 meters at the summit of Mt. Iwate earlier today. That was a lot of fun! (And I was surprised that reception was good enough to make it possible from my phone!)

While we were talking about all kinds of things, a few people were asking about what music I've been listening to lately. So I whipped up a couple of playlists on Spotify with a little over 2 hours of music each - a "light version" and a "dark version" depending on mood. I really enjoy discovering new music, and I also love sharing the music that I love with others. These two playlists are just what I've been listening to over the last few months, and I'll add more to them as I remember (or discover) other songs. (Feel free to suggest songs/bands in the comments - as I said - love listening to new music!)

I know that just because I make some hiking videos that you watched doesn't mean you'd necessarily care what music I listen to - but if you're curious, feel free to take a look! You don't need a Spotify account to see the playlists, though I think you'd need one to play them directly.

After the Mountain (dark version):  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0R8zYoCXmYWZwxgikXGhFV?si=e0ab4a0972a04606 

After the Mountain (light version):  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7BSi17ivlp9r9woxCUmbJS?si=3b8b05f232c1449b 

I recently started writing regularly for Outdoor Japan. The recent issue just came out, and I wrote an article on sea kayaking with Suzuki-san.

The article is here:  https://www.outdoorjapan.com/activities/ocean-sports-beach-activities/sea-kayaking-in-japan/iwate-sea-kayaking-pureland-paradise/?fbclid=IwAR3vwV1R3bFUEbW8nGUYzyLCk3Px8cet16RPuWlPi3NxWkT26GOZZiwyIVg 

And in case you missed it, my video from that day is here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2d17... 

(日本語は下にあります。）I recently started another Youtube channel - this one completely in Japanese. It's more casual and loosely edited than GoNorth Japan, and of course my spoken Japanese is light years from perfect. Still, having a channel directed at people in Japan allows me to give a different type/degree of information, and forces me to look at how bad my spoken Japanese is (which may motivate me to improve - could happen). At any rate, if you're a Japanese language speaker or just curious, feel free to take a look. I just uploaded the second video today. Not sure what pace I'll keep with this new channel, but probably at least one or two new videos a month.　Thanks!

６月に新しく日本語のチャンネルを作りました。国内の方に東北の山、祭り、穴場だと思うところを紹介したいと思います。ちょっとカジュアルな感じでやっています。よかったら、見てください。

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2G.. . 

Hiked up Akita Komagatake again yesterday (Playlist for that cluster of vocanoes:  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6...  ) and I came upon a skeleton flower. It was the first time I saw them this season, and luckily it was a rainy day! They are dreamy delicate little white flowers, but they become translucent in the rain... Love them! (And I'm not even really a flower person...)

Also was nice as I was able to show one of my favorite hikes to a guy (American) that just moved to the area - and said my videos were a large part of why he moved to Morioka! (Hear that, city office??! Put me on the payroll for promoting the city!! ) Anyway- it was nice to meet a "fan" for a hike and a beautiful misty day. People of the world, assemble in Morioka! 

Sorry for the radio silence for the last couple weeks! After a summer where my time was mostly my own, I've had tons of gigs that had me away from home, and spent about 80% of the last month in various hotels and ryokan. I'm grateful for the work- but I haven't had a single day off since October 14th, which has made it nearly impossible to film and edit videos.

But the crazy period is coming to an end! It looks like things will be a bit more balanced over the next month or so, fingers crossed!

This nighttime photo of a bear is a still from my next video, which I think I'll be able to finish next week. (I'll again be away from today through Monday for an "Adventure Tourism" training.) I also have a couple of exciting (to me at least) projects coming up. One of them involves a local TV station hiring me to make a video while they film me for a local TV feature. So be filmed filming... Fun?!

Thanks as always for your support! I really appreciate everyone that watches, comments, etc. and I am eternally grateful to my Patreon supporters!