Goals

A couple of months ago, feeling especially motivated after reading a book on Neuro-Linguistic Programming, I made a list of my dreams/aims for the next few years. Included in this list under such headings as "Health & Fitness," "Work" and "Writing" are such goals as running the City-to-Surf (an annual 14 km run held here in Christchurch), reducing my cholesterole (I guess those two are kind of related), working more while making sure I keep regular hours and take days off, getting my first novel published, and attending the Melbourne Jazz Festival.

Naturally, one of the headings is "Walking." Under it I wrote three goals: walk the Oshu Kaido, walk Route 16 (the 241 km beltway around Tokyo), and walk the length of Japan (aka The Big One). According to the book, it's important that you not only write down your goals and refer to them regularly, but also that you set dates by which you intend to achieve them. And so next to "Walk the Oshu Kaido" I wrote "May 2017." A few days later I booked my flights to Japan.

All of this is by way of an announcement that in May next year I will be walking the Oshu Kaido, the fifth of the go-kaido, or five old highways of Japan (labelled A on the by-now-familiar map below). Walking all five of these highways has been a kind of unconscious goal of mine for a while now. I don't remember when I came up with the idea exactly, but it was probably after I walked the Nakasendo and was thinking of what to do next.

At just 90 km, the Oshu Kaido is the shortest of the go-kaido. I plan to walk it over three days. As usually, I'll be posting updates on my training up until I leave and reporting on the walk after I get back. Otanoshimi ni!