{"id":102224,"date":"2025-05-30T09:26:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T00:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/papersky.jp\/?post_type=magazine&p=102224"},"modified":"2025-05-30T10:42:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T01:42:24","slug":"yamaguchi-walkable","status":"publish","type":"magazine","link":"https:\/\/papersky.jp\/en\/magazine-issue\/yamaguchi-walkable\/","title":{"rendered":"YAMAGUCHI Walkable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Editor’s Letter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No.72 \u2014 YAMAGUCHI\uff082025\uff09 <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Trail Learning: Walking as a Way of Being<\/strong>

By LUCAS B.B.
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This entire issue was made on foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome to the YAMAGUCHI \u2018Walkable\u2019 Issue\u2014devoted to our favorite activity: Walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yamaguchi is a prefecture shaped by ancient stone roads, sea-kissed towns, forest paths, and stories passed down on foot. Walking is not simply movement\u2014it\u2019s meaning, connection, reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this month, with the help of friends, I co-edited and directed the book Trail Learning, a celebration of the idea that walking isn\u2019t just about getting somewhere but about being somewhere. Yamaguchi, home to forward thinkers like Shoin Yoshida, sets a perfect stage for this concept in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To listen with your feet. To see your feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trail Learning is fieldwork in motion\u2014part travel log, part quiet philosophy\u2014where observation becomes insight. Along the way, you learn from the land\u2019s shape, stories held in rocks, and your fellow trail mates. You meet new people, taste culture, trace history\u2014and begin to understand a place not from above but from within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this issue, we walk through Hagi, Yamaguchi City, and Nagato\u2014three towns that reveal themselves slowly, one walkable step at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Hagi, we meet Tsukasa Kaneko, a potter inspired by mushrooms and the forest floor, and sip coffee at Caf\u00e9 Tikal\u2014a family-run kissaten with creaky floors, and a cat to greet you. We follow in the footsteps of Tsuneichi Miyamoto, who conducted fieldwork here, showing us that walking can also be a way of listening, knowing, learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nagato, we soak at Onto Onsen, a rare nama onsen where mineral-rich waters rise from the earth\u2014watched over by Sumiyoshi Shrine and Taineiji Temple, where Shinto and Buddhist traditions quietly meet. We visit 16th-generation potter Masahiro Sakakura and reflect on the words of Misuzu Kaneko, while relaxing at the newly opened riverside retreat, SOIL Nagatoyumoto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Yamaguchi City, we browse sake at Sake Murata and visit Mizunoe Kiln, founded by Masai Gakuji on the grounds of Toshunji Temple. We stop at J\u014dei-ji Temple, where monk-artist Sessh\u016b T\u014dy\u014d designed a Zen garden that still feels relevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this issue, I invited my longtime friend Craig Mod to join me. Craig, a walker and photographer, recently spotlighted Yamaguchi in the New York Times \u201c52 Places to Go\u201d list. Now, we walk out of the spotlight and onto the trail\u2014exploring Yamaguchi and the Hagi \u014ckan in bursts of trail-learning delight and receiving far more than we seek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy trails to you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Soundtrack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

YAMAGUCHI\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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PAPERSKY Soundtrack For Travelers
Yamaguchi Editon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A list of Songs to enjoy over a cup of coffee, while driving, and of course while flipping through the pages of the Yamaguchi edition of Papersky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selected by:
GOOD NEIGHBORS\u2019 MUSIC VENDER
Shuichiro Sakaguchi (BAGN Inc. \/ Double Famous)
Kenji Hatogai (BAGN Inc.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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