Ridgeline subscribers —

Hello! I’m Craig, and this is Ridgeline, and last time I wrote to you (a month ago), I wrote about garbage.

These last few months have been packed to the max, so I just wanted to update you on some recent walk-related activities (I’ll be sending a bigger, more general update to Roden soon).

Promotion for Random House TBOT is ramping up. I’ve begun the podcast gauntlet. First pod drops next week with (many) more coming in late April. On many of these pods I’ll be chatting extensively about walks, my walk “philosophy,” walk “rules,” etc, mostly in the context of TBOT (natch).

OTHER THING

Three weeks ago I returned to our beloved Kii Peninsula (where TBOT takes place) and did a nine-day mega shoot of people, people, and more people (and that chair above, which I last photographed about nine years ago). Did we have time for this trip? No. Are we glad we did it? Heck, yes. The trip was captured in my About a Nightingale pop-up newsletter (archived for members on the SPECIAL PROJECTS-members site). I ended up with a whole new corpus of photographs which are being turned into (with a few other, older images mixed in) a new book called OTHER THING. This is technically my first (solo) photo-only book (I want to get better at releasing a photo-focused book every … 12-18 months?). Printed and bound in Japan, tipped in photo on cover, lay-flat binding, foil stamped title, labeled SP3, same trim and material as Kissa by Kissa and the fine art edition of TBOT (we’re building a series). Of course, it’s a standalone book, but it will also serve as a kind of visual companion++ to RH-TBOT.

If you want to be notified explicitly of when OTHER THING goes on sale (in about a month), you can add your email to this one-off list. There will be 1,000 signed copies in this first run. (I’ll announce publication here, too, of course; but that one-off might break through the “clutter” of your inbox a bit better). As always, SPECIAL PROJECTS Yearly members will get a chunky discount. And if you pre-order RH-TBOT, you can stack on that pre-order discount, too.

YAMAGUCHI

Right after that Kii Peninsula photo project, I joined Papersky Magazine for a four-day walk in Yamaguchi. (Yes, I am insane, and yes, I am also getting good sleep (mostly).) We walked Yamaguchi City and also the great Hagi-Ōkan, the old road connecting the Inland Sea with the Sea of Japan, running through Yamaguchi City and Hagi. I finally stayed at Sansuien, which was fabulous (it’s basically a 100+ year old onsen and garden in Yuda / Yamaguchi City). And as a team, we stayed at Koukasha, also: FABULOUS.

Sansuien’s magic draws from its well-earned status as a registered cultural asset, nostalgic Taisho-era lobby, delicious food, soft onsen waters, and classic rooms.

Koukasha is run by a second-gen husband and wife team. The husband’s father ran it as a guesthouse, and the couple did a massive renovation a few years ago and reopened as a kind of hyper-refined guesthouse. It’s AMAZING. Their attention to detail is nonpareil. It also has a wood-burning sauna and cold plunges. Anyway, I love it so much (great food too; they specialize in hot dogs and bake all their own bread, but will make you a veggie dog if you ask (as I did)), the owners are kind and generous. If you are going to Yamaguchi, you must stay — ideally at both Sansuien and Koukasha (Koukasha is significantly more affordable, though a little ways out of city center).

Papersky’s special issue about walking Yamaguchi is coming out in May. It’s sort of wild to think I’ve known Lucas B.B. (the publisher) for some 24 years now, and have been reading his magazine for the same amount. (He was the founder of the seminal Tokion magazine, back in the ‘90s (it’s since changed hands many times but was arguably the most influential, decades-ahead-of-its-time pop-culture magazine about Japan in English).)

OK, I’m off to Spain to run a Walk and Talk with Kevin Kelly. Back to Japan on April 1 to record the audiobook of TBOT and field all those podcast interviews and prep for the nationwide US book tour in May (announcing more on that soon!).

Thanks,
C