Marry King and Etsuko Shimabukuro completed a 7,974-kilometer walk across Japan. Mary takes our questions about their incredible accomplishment.
Why did you walk across Japan?
The mapmaker Ino Tadataka inspired me. He spent 17 years on and off walking through Japan.
He drew the country’s first real maps.
How long did it take?
A year and a half. We walked from the island of Hokkaido, in the north, down to Okinawa. In Hokkaido, we walked about 40 kilometers a day, and on the other islands, about 30. We often had no choice about the distance because we had to find a place to sleep.
Describe a typical day.
There really wasn’t one.
but we tried to start by 7:00 a.m. and walk for 10 to 12 hours. Sometimes we had breakfast on the road. We had to be careful in Hokkaido because the bears there could smell our food. We saw bears twice, which was terrifying!
Did you walk every day?
No, We needed to do our laundry, check our email, and rest. Also, I wanted to interview people for my blog.