Part of the concept of this event is to share my experience in Japan with fellow Canadians, in hope of bringing further insight, understanding and a deepened perspective to both the culture and country of Japan. Every day as I walk I enjoy meeting countless people, connecting with them and sharing a story or two about Japan. Although I have brought with me a formal presentation, I have enjoyed sharing what is in effect parts of that presentation with the people I meet along the way.
My formal presentation is a PowerPoint presentation that aims to both engage and entertain any sized audience for about an hour. Understandably this has been difficult to organize from on the road, and is a challenge to make arrangements on such short notice, especially during the summer months when many community groups are tough to get a hold of. In this final week of the event as our schedule focuses-in closer and closer to Vancouver, should there be any community groups interested in learning more: all we need is an interested audience. Any interested groups, please contact us using the contact details above!
It has been and continues to be a pleasure to connect with people I cross paths with while I am out walking. They are always very special exchanges, as I am certain that I would never have met them had I had not been out walking on that path at that time. In other cases, I only exchange a brief greeting to passer-by's and we both carry on our way. It is only natural that not everyone I meet has the time or interest to stop, chat and find out more. I am always hopeful that I may reach those people as well as a much wider audience through the newspapers, t.v. news or even this website!
It has also been a pleasure to learn about the Japanese-Canadian communities as well as cities with strong sister city connections in many of the towns along the way! I would encourage anyone who wants to learn more about Japan to seek out these community groups in their own region to find out more! As a Canadian who originally listed Japan at the bottom of a long list of "countries I'd like to visit", and who at first reluctantly went to Japan for "just a year" on what can best be described as a naive young man's blind adventure - then ended up enjoying 8 absolutely fantastic years of my life there, you can take my word for it!
It's been really wonderful to discover along the way that it seems that almost everyone we talk to has some kind of connection to Japan! For example, we stopped off at a fruit stand along hiway 97 passing through Summerland. We learned from the owner that her family's farm had been originally purchased from a Japanese-Canadian family! In fact, the little white house that we could see across the parking lot is still the home of that family's only daughter, who is now in her late 90s! What's more, the street nearby was named after that family: Kida! And that was just what we found out while enjoying some fresh B.C. cherries and an ice cream at road-side fruit stand!
A big part of the message of the "Gambaro Japan!" - Walk for Japan is to send a message of understanding, compassion, even admiration along with our donations and disaster relief efforts. What the people in Japan need most is to hear from the world an echo of their resiliency and their bravery in the face of adversity, our sympathy for their hardship as well as our admiration for how they are dealing with it…and to make sure they know that despite our cultural differences, in spite of their solitude as an island nation, we are interconnected with them as they are with us!
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