Hello everyone,

I hope you are doing well during your tests this week. It is nice to go home when the weather is warm and the sun is high in the sky, isn’t it? I enjoy being outside, especially hiking in the mountains. Today I read a newspaper article about an interesting trail in Nagano and Toyama.

In the 1950’s, a man named Shoichi Ito spent four years to build a 10km trail between a hot spring at the start and a mountain villa (that he built!) at the end. The trail goes through a geologically energetic area, with sulfer in the air and active an volcano. Eventually the trail had to be abandoned in the 1980’s because the route of water changed, and some bridges were damaged.

It stayed that way for a long time, and Shoichi Ito died dreaming of the day the trail could be reopened. Now, to fulfill that dream, Ito’s son is fixing the route. Using crowdfunding, he raised a lot of money for the construction of new, stronger bridges. He hopes that the next generation of hikers will enjoy this challenging adventure through Japan’s mountains, carrying on his father’s legacy and love of the area.

You can check out the article here, or search for more sources in Japanese if you like:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/03/05/national/mountain-train-toyama/

See you!