While i was in Russia in Siberia at Lake Baikal i met a lone Backpacker called Ulysses, he is french and is traveling around the world with no fixed agenda, just randomly mooching about, he gets work where he can, sleeps in his tent or at train stations ect.

We met at a backpackers hostel in Irkutsk and he decided to join me on a trek around the Baikal lake area, we spent two weeks around the lake whilst i waited for vehicle parts to be sent to me from the Uk, Ulysses is a very independent lad and is easy to get on with so that makes him a good traveling companion, also we are not dependent on each other we share our resources together which enriches the adventure, he uses a fantastic hammock made from a large parachute to sleep in, he manages to use this in any place that we decide to park whether on a mountain or in a town car park. After our Baikal adventure we drove east out to Chita where we went our separate ways as he wanted to go south to South Korea and i needed to get to Vladivostock to find a shipping company to get to Japan.

Ulysses kept in touch via email and he had worked in Seoul for a while, before deciding to catch a ferry from South Korea to Shimonoseki in japan, so today he is arriving at the nearest station to where i am living, which is Takamori, it is the highest that a train can get into the Mt Aso area.

It was really good to meet up again and it was a surreal experience for the last time we parted it was in the crazy city of Chita in far east Russia and now we are in the calm and relaxing mountains of southern Japan, he told me he needed to be around nature again as he was really tired after working in late bars and living the 24/7 Korean lifestyle of Seoul.

We both went back to Edwins house and shared our missing two months since we last met.

We are planning to tour the southern part of Japan together and then head north to the Island of Shikoku where we will go our separate ways again and maybe meet up in South America in a year’s time.