As a New Zealander who's spent a lot of time thinking about walking the length of Japan, it was great late last year to follow the progress of Kazushi Noiri, a Japanese nursing student at Otago Polytechnic who walked the length of New Zealand, over 2000km in 66 days, to raise money for Arthritis New Zealand. As I've mentioned previously, I'm not a huge fan of the concept of walking for charity (I believe walking *for* something is tantamount to asserting that walking has no value in and of itself), but I was mightily impressed by this achievement. Well done, Kaz!
Showing posts with label The Big One. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Big One. Show all posts
Thursday, 6 April 2017
Sunday, 30 October 2016
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!
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!
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Dreaming of 'the big one'
I knew I wouldn't be the first foreigner to walk the length of Japan (Tyler MacNiven and Alan Booth being perhaps the most notable members of this club), but it seems I won't even be the first New Zealander to achieve this feat. Craig Stanton walked from Cape Sata to Cape Soya in 2008. Along the way he blogged and took some very nice photos. You can see the results here.
Speaking of nice photos, Swede Joseph Nilsen is part way through his own solo walk from Cape Sata to Cape Soya. His blog is here.
Booth was under forty when he completed his walk, and both Stanton and Nilsen are in their twenties by the look of them, so perhaps I'm in with a chance of being the oldest foreigner to walk the length of Japan.
But enough of this dreaming about "the big one"; what about my Koshu Kaido plans? Well, I've booked my accommodation for nine of the ten nights I'll be on the road between Shimo-Suwa and Tokyo. The missing link in the chain is Otsuki. I was originally thinking of taking a train to Fujiyoshida and spending the night there, but I may wing it and bed down in a ryokan or minshuku in Otsuki itself.
Distance walked since last post: 6km
Total distance walked since Koshu Kaido training began: 80.9km
Days left until departure: 78
Speaking of nice photos, Swede Joseph Nilsen is part way through his own solo walk from Cape Sata to Cape Soya. His blog is here.
Booth was under forty when he completed his walk, and both Stanton and Nilsen are in their twenties by the look of them, so perhaps I'm in with a chance of being the oldest foreigner to walk the length of Japan.
But enough of this dreaming about "the big one"; what about my Koshu Kaido plans? Well, I've booked my accommodation for nine of the ten nights I'll be on the road between Shimo-Suwa and Tokyo. The missing link in the chain is Otsuki. I was originally thinking of taking a train to Fujiyoshida and spending the night there, but I may wing it and bed down in a ryokan or minshuku in Otsuki itself.
Distance walked since last post: 6km
Total distance walked since Koshu Kaido training began: 80.9km
Days left until departure: 78
Saturday, 19 June 2010
George Meegan
While surfing the net the other day I came across this list of people who have walked, or are in the process of walking, around the world. Coming in at number five is George Meegan.
Strictly speaking, Meegan didn't walk around the world. He does, however, hold the record for the longest unbroken walk, established when he journeyed on foot some 30,600km from Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America to the northern tip of Alaska. The walk took him six years and eight months, during which time he married his Japanese fiancee, Yoshiko Matsumoto, and fathered two children.
Some two decades after Meegan completed his epic walk, the elder of these two children, Ayumi Meegan, traveled to San Fransisco where she met Tyler MacNiven (who later gained fame - and half of the one-million-dollar prize money - as co-winner of season nine of The Amazing Race). MacNiven fell in love with Ayumi, and in an effort to impress her (and no doubt her father), he hatched a plan to walk the length of Japan. He completed his walk in 2004 and later made an hour-long documentary about his exploits, Kintaro Walks Japan, which can be viewed at Google Video.
Today, George Meegan shares his time between England and Japan, where he holds a position as associate professor at the Graduate School of Maritime Sciences at Kobe University. He stood as an independent candidate in the recent UK General Election, campaigning on a platform of reforming the education system, which he regards as ignoring the needs of children who don't fit into the school system.
George Meegan makes a brief appearance part way through Kintaro Walks Japan. His intensity and his enthusiasm for walking are plain to see, but he doesn't seem entirely comfortable. In an earlier interview on Larry King Live, an excerpt of which is included in Kintaro Walks Japan, he comes across as confident and media savvy, yet an article in Backpacker magazine from the late-1980s describes him as having a distaste for publicity. He appears to be something of an enigma. Perhaps not "out of his mind" (as suggested in the same Backpacker article), but definitely an eccentric.
Distance walked since last post: 6km
Total distance walked since Koshu Kaido training began: 53.7km
Days left until departure: 89
Strictly speaking, Meegan didn't walk around the world. He does, however, hold the record for the longest unbroken walk, established when he journeyed on foot some 30,600km from Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America to the northern tip of Alaska. The walk took him six years and eight months, during which time he married his Japanese fiancee, Yoshiko Matsumoto, and fathered two children.
Some two decades after Meegan completed his epic walk, the elder of these two children, Ayumi Meegan, traveled to San Fransisco where she met Tyler MacNiven (who later gained fame - and half of the one-million-dollar prize money - as co-winner of season nine of The Amazing Race). MacNiven fell in love with Ayumi, and in an effort to impress her (and no doubt her father), he hatched a plan to walk the length of Japan. He completed his walk in 2004 and later made an hour-long documentary about his exploits, Kintaro Walks Japan, which can be viewed at Google Video.
Today, George Meegan shares his time between England and Japan, where he holds a position as associate professor at the Graduate School of Maritime Sciences at Kobe University. He stood as an independent candidate in the recent UK General Election, campaigning on a platform of reforming the education system, which he regards as ignoring the needs of children who don't fit into the school system.
George Meegan makes a brief appearance part way through Kintaro Walks Japan. His intensity and his enthusiasm for walking are plain to see, but he doesn't seem entirely comfortable. In an earlier interview on Larry King Live, an excerpt of which is included in Kintaro Walks Japan, he comes across as confident and media savvy, yet an article in Backpacker magazine from the late-1980s describes him as having a distaste for publicity. He appears to be something of an enigma. Perhaps not "out of his mind" (as suggested in the same Backpacker article), but definitely an eccentric.
Distance walked since last post: 6km
Total distance walked since Koshu Kaido training began: 53.7km
Days left until departure: 89
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Post-Koshu Kaido
At just over 210km, the Koshu Kaido will be a walk in the park compared to my next big adventure.
3300km. 128 days.
I think my fate was sealed back in December 2009 when I rounded off a post about Alan Booth's The Roads to Sata with the following comment: "Writing this has made me think how interesting it would be to walk the length of Japan following the same route Booth took as a kind of experiment to see how much things have changed in the nearly 25 years since Roads to Sata was first published."
3300km. 128 days.
I think my fate was sealed back in December 2009 when I rounded off a post about Alan Booth's The Roads to Sata with the following comment: "Writing this has made me think how interesting it would be to walk the length of Japan following the same route Booth took as a kind of experiment to see how much things have changed in the nearly 25 years since Roads to Sata was first published."
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