40 Kilometers and Still Walking

Around the middle of May, my high school hosted a Challenge Walk. And when they said challenge, they meant it. There were four different distances to choose from: 20 kilometers, 28 kilometers, 32 kilometers, and 40 kilometers. Wanting to prove that gaijin were not lazy people who sleep underneath their kotatsu drinking wine all through the winter months, I opted for the 40 kilometer walk. I was even more cemented in my decision when one Japanese teacher informed me that only eight of the sixty students walking 40 kilometers were girls.

The walk was scheduled for a Friday in order to give the students two days to recover before returning to school. And the walk was scheduled to take all day: from 8:30 am until 4:30 pm. The morning did not start out looking promising. It looked like it would be another rainy day in the Kawa.

As we kept walking though, the day began to turn beautiful. The students were energetic and excited for their chosen courses.  I walked with a group of girls for a while. The could speak a little English back to me, but soon joined a group of three quieter boys who though didn't speak much English were very friendly and willing to point a lot and swap snack goodies. Here are some photos from the day:



By the second half of the day some students were opting to take the buses back to the school rather than complete the walk. I completed the walk with three strong girls who even managed to run the last couple of meters of the course, and finish ten minutes before their expected time. It was a pretty great day and I'm looking forward to next year's challenge walk.

Up this weekend: Nagano soccer tournament. Stay tuned to hear of my soccer disasters since I'm sure there will be several. I hope everyone reading this is enjoying warm sunny summer bliss.