I was wondering if anyone might have any hiking boot advice for me.

I live in Shimane-ken with the biggest cities in my area being, Matsue, Yonago (Tottori-ken) and Izumo. I have not been able to find a hiking boot my size (about US 10 or Japan 28). I did find a 28 at Alpen, but the boot was didn't feel right and was not acceptable. Yesterday I finally made it down to Hiroshima to check out what they had for boots. I was only able to find a couple shops. At one of the shops they had only a few larger size boots. I ended up purchasing one pair of these boots out of desperation.

The boots I purchased were Sirio. They felt okay (a little clumpy and clumsy), but I'm not sure about the make. It seems they are made from decent material such as goretex, vibram and cordura so maybe they are okay. However, they were fairly expensive at 25 000 yen. I'm wondering if this is merely because they say made in Italy. In any case, I couldn't find any info on the web about them (in English or Italian). (My Japanese is too poor so this may have something to do with it.)

Does anyone know anything about them? Are they quality boots? They're design seems very simple... maybe this is good. Anyway, I'm trying to decide whether or not to keep them so any advice would be helpful. Thanks a bunch.

Hi There

I have a pair of their high-end boot AKU Sirio which are around the Y50,000 mark and they are one of the best boots I have used, I also have a pair of their low-end boot which are also good boots but I don't use so much now because I seem to use my AKU's all the time now days, I original brought them to use for the spring and autunm months up here in Hokkaido but I like them so much that I use them in summer as well and on short winter treks. they alittle clumpy but you get used to that but they can take a knock or two. I am a hiking guide so my boots get a heavy work out nearly every weekend . the only thing that I found was that they take a long time to break in, mu AKU's took about six months. Y25,000 isn't too bad for a pair of boots in Japan .

BP

Thanks for the info BP. Good to know. I should probably just keep them then and get out into the mountainesque winter wonderland.

Cheers.

Earthlark