Adventure traveler and photographer Norio Sasaki is out to push his limits on solo travel. His expeditions have taken him from Prudhoe Bay, at the tip of North America, to “the end of the world” at Ushuaia, the southernmost tip of South America. He is a self-proclaimed fuukei (landscape) hunter, walking for miles across every type of terrain and weather, dragging along his nearly 80-kilogram bicycle-drawn cart—with a big smile on his face. Sasaki shares his unusual ways of travel and what adventure travel means to him.
What got you started in adventure travel?
I used to be in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, traveling around Japan and overseas. The biggest thing I discovered is if you have tairyoku (endurance) and konjo (guts), you can set your mind to do anything. I learned from my mistakes, gained a lot of experience taking on jobs such as lifesaving in Okinawa, ocean guiding, ski patrolling and outdoor guiding.
When I was 25-years-old, my mother sent me a book by Naomi Uemura..