Companions:
(153) unwashed, pre-Buddhist mountain ascetics
(1) 63-year-old geisha
(19) one-ton bulls
(23) 350 pound (average) sumo wrestlers
(37) naked drunken Japanese fishermen
(18) samurai mounted archers
(1) homeless man/ 22 kilos of aluminum cans
(34) firewalking ascetics
(8) trained cormorants
Lodgings:
6 romance hotels
4 capsule hotels
42 temples
3 weeks in mountaintop Buddhist monastery
6 months with host family of Japanese judo instructor
1 rented room in an Osaka slum
Cemeteries and train stations
Farmers’ and fishermen’s homes
Activities:
6 demon drums
Electric bath
57 judo workouts
10,000 lanterns (Day of the Dead)
40 tons of pounded rice
3 hours of pachinko
(53) twenty-foot fighting kites
5 famous swords
9 hours of outdoor theatre in the middle of a snowstorm
16 festivals
Travel time:
Train: 340 hours
Bus: 64 hours
Airplane: 46 hours
Hiking: 1400 kilometers
Hitchhiking: 12 rides
Car: none
Boat: 4 days
Bicycle: 6 days

Motorbike: 3 days
Steam train: 3 days
Cuisine:
245 bowls of instant ramin noodles half a pound of sautéed crickets (recipe upon request)
38 raw eggs (breakfast)
8.5 pounds of raw fish
One taste of fermented raw squid
Assorted sea creatures, live
308 sheets of seaweed
Endless green tea
Obstacles:
Double pneumonia
Japane se proverb: “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down”.
Cost of living: six-dollar apples
2000-character Japanese alphabet (rediscovering illiteracy)
Learning to bow
Result:
62 hours of footage
3800 slides
1600 journal pages
Fluent Japanese