In the winter of 2020, I fulfilled a long time goal of traveling to Hokkaido, Japan to explore the minimalistic landscape. The rolling hills, elegant copses, quiet snow laden fields, stoic mountains and not so stoic Whooper Swans were all they were advertised.
I found myself struggling to keep a schedule as each day was planned around a generic “day trip” from a home base that prevailed in revealing a novel landscape around each corner. It was a lot of start, and stop, and start, and stop again, and then back on the road for a few kilometers before another stop. Eventually, any semblance of a daily itinerary was thrown out the window.