Kieran William Comes Home

My wife gave birth to our first child ten days ago. His name is Kieran William Rowthorn. Today, they came home from the birth clinic (they keep them a long time in Japan). We hope he likes the house.


Here's a picture of Kieran taken a few days ago. I think he looks like his mother.

Ashiu Primeval Forest

The other day my friend Paul and I went for a two-day backpacking trip in Ashiu, in the Kitayama Mountains north of Kyoto. Ashiu is one of the few remaining areas of virgin forest left in Japan. It's a storehouse of incredible biodiversity. It's surprising to see so many broadleaf trees in Japan - one gets used to all the industrial cedars you see growing on most of the hills. We bushwhacked down a steep river and camped by the Yura-gawa before hiking out over a rather steep ridge. It was excellent, leech bites and all.

This shot gives you a good idea of how rich the green is in Ashiu.


This is me at the base of one of the rivers that flows into the Yura-gawa.


Here's Paul with a mossy river.


Here I am drinking some of the best water on earth.