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https://scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3157439/how-japans-new-1000km-hiking-trail-through-earthquake-and
Lifestyle/ Travel & Leisure

How Japan’s new 1,000km hiking trail through earthquake- and tsunami-stricken lands teaches you an inspirational lesson

  • The breathtaking Michinoku Coastal Trail in Japan’s Tohoku region traverses countryside, villages and towns devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami
  • A particularly spectacular stretch is the South Fudai section, which follows the Sanriku coastline, with its 200m-high cliffs and otherworldly rock formations
The Tanesashi Coast in Aomori prefecture. Photo: Courtesy Robin Takashi Lewis

When Japan reopens to international travel, a treat awaits hikers, “forest bathers” and those who like getting close to nature.

The newly opened Michinoku Coastal Trail runs for an astonishing 1,000km (620 miles) through four prefectures – Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima – in the Tohoku region of northeastern Honshu. The ends can be found in the cities of Hachinohe (in Aomori) and Soma (in Fukushima), both of which can be reached by bullet train from Tokyo.

The trail passes through rugged countryside, small fishing villages and coastal towns devastated by the tremors and 13-metre-high (43-foot) waves of Japan’s 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Tohoku is a wild, remote land. It was included on National Geographic magazine’s Best Trips 2020 list and Lonely Planet’s Best In Travel 2020. Yet it remains virtually unknown to tourists.

The Tanesashi Coast in Aomori prefecture. Photo: Courtesy Robin Takashi Lewis
The Tanesashi Coast in Aomori prefecture. Photo: Courtesy Robin Takashi Lewis
Jodogahama Beach in Iwate prefecture. Photo: Michinoku Trail Club
Jodogahama Beach in Iwate prefecture. Photo: Michinoku Trail Club

In 2019, less than 2 per cent of foreign visitors ventured to Tohoku, an indication of where the region lies in relation to the beaten track. The Michinoku Coastal Trail, named after a historic region that is now part of modern-day Tohoku (michinoku means “the end of the road”), was opened in June 2019 by the Ministry of the Environment to attract people to the region, in the hope of boosting the local economies ravaged by the 2011 disaster.

If hiking 1,000km in one go sounds daunting – it’s reckoned to take anywhere between six weeks and three months – the Michinoku Coastal Trail comprises many sections, and visitors can hike just one, or even part thereof.

A particularly spectacular stretch is the South Fudai section, in Iwate prefecture, which passes through the Sanriku Fukko National Park, one of Japan’s newest, which opened in 2013. Hikers follow the rugged Sanriku coastline, with its 200-metre-high cliffs, dip down to deserted coves bathed by turquoise waters, climb up and down endless steps, take narrow paths through hushed forests (dotted with mauled “Beware of the Bears” signs that don’t look as though they have taken their own advice) and traverse dark tunnels hand-dug 60 years ago. Otherworldly rock formations – the “Ocean Alps” – rise from the sea, having been eroded into arches, jagged pinnacles and craggy pine-tufted outcrops.

For Robin Lewis, a young Anglo-Japanese eco-entrepreneur who walked 600km of the yet-to-be-completed trail in 2017, meeting local people and hearing their stories was a life-changing experience.

“Walking forces you to slow down and take in the details, to stop and say ‘hello’ and have a cup of tea. What really makes places unique is the interactions with people. People make places,” he says.

“The tsunami claimed almost 20,000 lives and wiped many communities completely off the map, devastating hundreds of kilometres of coast. Ten years on, the people of Tohoku are still busy rebuilding their lives. And, importantly, they are eager to welcome tourists from all over the world.”

The Urato Islands in Miyagi prefecture. Photo: Michinoku Trail Club
The Urato Islands in Miyagi prefecture. Photo: Michinoku Trail Club
A parade in Ishinomaki City in Miyagi prefecture. Photo: Robin Takashi Lewis
A parade in Ishinomaki City in Miyagi prefecture. Photo: Robin Takashi Lewis
The Tanesashi Coast in Aomori prefecture. Photo: Courtesy Robin Takashi Lewis
The Tanesashi Coast in Aomori prefecture. Photo: Courtesy Robin Takashi Lewis

Lewis says his many encounters “filled me with a sense of hope and optimism for the future”. In a small fishing village, he says, a man ran up to Lewis: “He screamed ‘Hello!’ in English, bought me a meal and walked off without saying another word.”

Two senior sisters put him up one night rather than let him sleep outdoors in his tent. “When I asked why they decided to help me, one of them told of how they had lost their family and their house in the tsunami. ‘It was a time of extreme hardship and sadness,’ she explained. ‘In the weeks, months and years that followed, so many people from all over the world came to help us, complete strangers working alongside us to rebuild our town. My family has been on the receiving end of so much kindness and generosity, so I think it’s important to pay it forward.’”

It was hoped that the 2020 Olympic Games would attract foreign visitors to the area. But in October 2019, Typhoon Hagibis caused widespread damage to parts of the trail. Scarcely had the repairs been completed than coronavirus struck, destroying – or at least delaying – the dream of a large influx of tourists.

“By the time of the Olympics, the number of hikers had already decreased,” says Kumi Aizawa, of the Michinoku Trail Club, which manages the attraction. “It’s a great pity. Everyone along the trail feels the same.”

A shrine in Aomori prefecture. Photo: Robin Takashi Lewis
A shrine in Aomori prefecture. Photo: Robin Takashi Lewis
The Kitayamazaki Cliffs in Iwate prefecture. Photo: Robin Takashi Lewis
The Kitayamazaki Cliffs in Iwate prefecture. Photo: Robin Takashi Lewis
Traditional culture is in evidence along the trail, including in Ishinomaki City in Miyagi prefecture. Photo: Robin Takashi Lewis
Traditional culture is in evidence along the trail, including in Ishinomaki City in Miyagi prefecture. Photo: Robin Takashi Lewis

For now, the people of Tohoku must keep on waiting and hoping. But it can only be a matter of time before foreign tourists find out that the Michinoku Coastal Trail is not just one of the world’s most breathtaking hikes, but also an inspirational lesson for humanity.

As Lewis said in a Ted Talk he delivered at Tohoku University: “It’s a story of human resilience and vulnerability, but also of the complex relation between human societies and the natural world – fundamental to life on Earth.”