Hiking Japan-Paradise Lost: Walking Kakeroma and Amami Oshima

[@Cycle-Tourer]

Keith, sorry I response only now, but I am still abroad cycling the fifth country this season. Anyway as I told you dozens times: You are a genius, And the lead actress in your movies just keeps getting better every year..... Your works just hypnotize me every time. this work is true masterpiece. With each new movie you release, your creation is further improved. Bless you! You are AWESOME!!

[@waddo]

I am towards the end of editing our summer trip. What I have noticed, as time goes by, is that I am more critical of each shot and will not use any clips that are not perfect. Unfortunately I had problems with two junky action cameras and certain shots are needed to tell the story. So I do all kinds of tricks, especially changing to slow motion, to make the shot usable. It means I can spend 1 hour editing for 30 seconds of video! It's my hobby, so no big deal. And after all, Yuki and I watch our videos quite often as we have no TV. So I most certainly wouldn't use the word "masterpiece" but I try my best so that the result s not amateur.

[@marioruiz5313]

I think what fascinates me most in your videos are the places where you choose to camp... if it has a roof or a cover, you'll be there😉 It`s a shame to see such beautiful places abandoned like that 😯 Thank you very much Waddo for the tour... thanks for your effort in bringing us such beautiful landscapes 👏👏👏

[@waddo]

As we spend all evening and a good part of the morning at a camp site, I usually (though preplanning) try to find a place that is interesting, beautiful, unusual, sheltered or something. This summer, with global warming, I have already planned the trip with suitable campsite. I'm like someone who loves great hotel rooms--without the actual hotel!

[@marioruiz5313]

We think alike, it's good to know that... I admire your way of being and living guys✌🫵

[@ervinslens]

Beautiful, simply amazing shots and your storytelling is amazing my friend!

[@waddo]

Glad you enjoyed it and think so. Frankly I am surprised by the comments because I don't rate this one very high myself!

[@RealSpaceHobo]

I know I say that after every upload, but this was a masterpiece. Absolutely riveting. Despite the lack of bikes....🙂...Watching Yuki with that lamb. She really did connect, didn't she.?...🙂...Japan is just so beautiful, it's nuts. And the trash? Well that is unfortunately a global issue. Trash cans I guess, galore. Again, thank you so much for sharing and so happy you guys weren't eaten by bears, a problem on the rise in Japan, I read....🙂....And grats on the UK election, btw....if I may be so bold....🙂....Favorite scene has to be the surreal party with old-timers....incredible....🙂

[@waddo]

No bears down there! Only deadly poisonous snakes! Usually I accept your very positive comments with a smile, because usually I am pretty happy with the final results. But this one I feel is not that good for various reasons I have mentioned in reply to other comments here. Soon we will go on our summer tour, as usual to Tohoku. Unfortunately global warming is making even Tohoku rather uncomfortable.

[@pjchmiel]

More wonderful scenery and some truly breathtaking images! It's nice to see parts of Japan that appear to have natural/mixed forests rather than monoculture plantations of sugi or hinoki. A tough slog to hike or camp in the rain, how did your feet do with blisters? I really enjoyed the music, though I felt that the ominous/foreboding cue (10:30, for an example) might have been used a bit too often, I kept anticipating danger or something shocking when sometimes it was just paired with more walking footage. Very impressed by the custom score! Great job of capturing the vast loneliness of rural Japan time and time again. The shamisen performance and dancing were also a highlight of this one. Cheers and I hope you are both doing well, thanks for having us along again.

[@waddo]

We have no problem with blisters, just tired legs! I agree with the "ominous" piece. In fact, I called it Ghost. The problem with it, I believe is none of the places were ghostly. The two abandoned schools we went to, for example, were so clean they looked like they were still open. The piece is also about 2 minutes long but we only heard very short bits. Yes, the party is the best scene. I guessed it would be so I video a lot during the party with no cuts. Actually they were speaking amongst themselves in the language of the island. When that generation dies the language will die. There is no effort to teach the kids! I think they are all happy to be "Japanese."

[@RollingExistence]

Love your videos

[@waddo]

@@RollingExistence happy to oblige.

[@rsandilands]

Wonderful video! Well done. What a joy to watch this.

[@waddo]

Very nice of you to say so. I think your joy must be greater than mine! ;)

[@rsandilands]

@@waddo Well it was wonderful to be transported to a remote part of Japan. Why exactly do you have mixed feelings? I know you mentioned the rubbish on the beach but what else? As someone who enjoys long walks in Japan and is looking for ideas for a 200km or thereabouts walk in winter, I'm curious...

[@waddo]

@@rsandilands I wasn't thinking so much about the rubbish; just this video is too much like our trip to the same place last winter. Also I had problems with iPhone video and the action camera, so there were many shots that I could not use, which made editing very annoying. I think tonight I will watch the previous video in Amami and better compare the two.

[@rsandilands]

@@waddo Got it, thanks! I still have my sights set on Shodoshima. Would it be crazy to walk there in winter?

[@waddo]

@@rsandilands I have bad corona memory these days, but I am pretty sure we did our shodoshima 88 temples in winter. I think the weather there is perfect all the time except summer. The problem with shodoshima 88 is not the climate but planning a route that allows for buy food.

[@JohnsLife1950]

Yes, this was a very enjoyable video. What a beautiful place and as usual good music! Thanks for that.

[@waddo]

Glad you enjoyed it. Apart from the music, it's rather too similar to our winter trip, so I don't rate it too highly.

[@clementihammock7572]

First comment to cheer you two up up up. 🤣😂

[@oschibaby3471]

Nice music there Keith. Do you compose the music in advance and then practice it before recording or can you play it off the top of your head? Have you learned the theory of music sometime in the past?

[@waddo]

I started a rough video edit and noted: walking music, hard walking music, abandoned places, ww2 sites, peaceful camping sites etc. Then I went to my piano a messed around. Once I had the basic mood for each, I recorded the midi (not audio just keyboard data) to the Mac. I edited the midi to fix my mistakes etc, then recorded the midi from the actual piano as audio. It was about 4 hours total for each piece. Only one piece, the ww2 sites, uses a Japanese music scale. The others are mostly minor scales. Composing music, playing guitar and keyboards was my main hobby before I started the video thing. Playing a few of my songs at a party in the old days was a sure way to find a gf. Such is the power of even average live music!

[@oschibaby3471]

@@waddo Thanks Keith. Keep up the good work. I like the note of melancholy in your music. It fits well to some of the abandoned yet serene places you find.

[@waddo]

@@oschibaby3471 Yes, I think everything except the plane/bus/ferry music is in in a minor key. I favour that kind of feeling and I think all traditional Japanese scales are minor!

[@oschibaby3471]

@@waddo Keith, which of your options accepts PayPal for sending a wee contribution?

[@waddo]

@@oschibaby3471 I think the best way is the buy me a coffee thing. It seems to be designed to get it done quick and easy. I think they should change the name to buy me a beer ;)

[@RobCoghanable]

Relaxing yet the plastic is a concern

[@waddo]

The problem is laziness and the ma ny of the locals just don't care. We have seen the same on the Goto Islands. In fact some locals there complained that the beaches are so dirty yet it never entered their minds to do something about it.

[@curiousnomadic]

Wretched place??

[@waddo]

referring to the plastic rubbish on the beach.

[@curiousnomadic]

@@waddo Still blowing/floating in from the 2011 disaster and maybe China too. This is happening on beaches all over the world. Even NY City used to dump their waste into the oceans up until the 1980s. That wasn't thrown there by local residents.

[@waddo]

@@curiousnomadic The point is I cleaned a beach myself in 70 minutes with 20 minutes help from Yuki. On Amami Oshima there was one long beach where plastic had been collected into various piles waiting for the city to take it away. It could come from the moon--the point is it's an island dependent on tourists and they sit about like the old lady cafe owner chatting with tourists while tourists look at the beach and plastic. And then there was the old woman that complained I cleaned shower camp beach and put the plastic in the wrong bin, instead of thanking me.