Traveling with purpose. Writing from the heart. Marie Journals is a personal travel blog about slow travel, hiking, and intentional journeys—mostly around Japan. Here, I share honest travel stories, detailed guides, reflections from the trail, and practical tips from my own experiences hiking and walking pilgrimages like the Camino de Santiago.
Beginner-friendly route option HERE. Back on Aug 22, 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, I decided to get back into outdoor activities and attempted to hike Mt. Karamatsu. I hadn’t been working out during that time and had gained about 10 kg since hiking Mt. Fuji two years prior. The climb was extremely difficult…
This is the hardest hike I’ve ever done in my life. We started our ascent at 8:30 and were supposed to be at Sonbutsu Sanso in Tonodake by 16:00, but we didn’t arrive until 18:40. It was already dark, and the last hour of the ascent was just too hard for me. I honestly thought…