{"id":30221,"date":"2013-05-17T02:43:51","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T06:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=30221"},"modified":"2013-05-17T02:43:51","modified_gmt":"2013-05-17T06:43:51","slug":"lets-walking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/17\/lets-walking\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Walking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Benjamin Martin<\/strong><\/a>, a 5th year JET on Kume Island<\/a> in Okinawa<\/a>, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com<\/a><\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and author of the award-winning<\/a> YA fantasy series\u00a0<\/em>Samurai Awakening<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(Tuttle).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sanpo<\/em> is Japanese for a \u2018walk,\u2019 and it\u2019s a popular pastime here.\u00a0 From the bureaucratic samurai of the Tokugawa period who would wander among the cherry trees and write poetry, to modern office workers trying to keep fit, walking is still a much appreciated activity in Japan.<\/p>\n

Japan is also a land with a rising elderly population.\u00a0 It has one of the longest life\u00a0expectancies\u00a0in the world.\u00a0 As communities and towns have ever older populations it is also becoming ever more important to promote fitness in populations that will strain public health services ever more if not kept healthy.\u00a0 One way municipalities can do this is by hosting events such at the one Kumejima Town hosts every January.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The \u4e45\u7c73\u5cf6\u306e\u3093\u3073\u308a\u30a6\u30aa\u30fc\u30af<\/a> or Kumejima’s Leisure Walk is a two-day yearly event, part of the larger Okinawa Marching league. \u00a0Participants come from all over Japan. \u00a0As a resident of Kume Island I attended this event first \u00a0in 2011.<\/p>\n

The first day offered 32km, 16km, and 5km courses and the second day offered 20km, 10km, and 5km courses. \u00a0One participant was a 86-year-old who planned on completing the full 32km course!<\/p>\n

Both days featured different courses through the island. \u00a0Participants entered with a nominal fee, and were provided maps and completion certificates. \u00a0Along the way stickers were awarded at checkpoints, and food stations were set up where walkers could rest and eat.<\/p>\n

I did the 16km walk on the first day of the event. \u00a0Walkers stretched together \u00a0and announcements were made. \u00a0As with many events there was an MC tapped for the event who extolled everyone to do a good job. \u00a0The 32km group did the same about half an hour before, so everyone in the 16km group set off together.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Each group set off to the sound of a taiko<\/em>\u00a0drum performance. \u00a0All along the way were supportive Japanese Flags with messages urging the participants on. \u00a0These helped guide the walkers through the more remote areas. \u00a0There were also tea and water stations along the way, with great views and interesting conversations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One lady I talked to came all the way from Yokohama to participate. \u00a0She said it was a great way to see more of Japan, while keeping in shape. \u00a0She talked to me because her children live in the states and wanted to know why I was there. ^_^ \u00a0All in all, it was a great morning\/afternoon spent among Kumejima’s beautiful walkways. \u00a0Do you want to visit new places and keep in shape? \u00a0Let’s Walking!<\/p>\n

This post originally appeared on MoreThingsJapanese.com<\/a>. To learn more about Kumejima visit KumeGuide.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Benjamin Martin, a 5th year JET on Kume Island in Okinawa, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com\u00a0and author of the award-winning YA fantasy series\u00a0Samurai Awakening\u00a0(Tuttle). Sanpo is Japanese for a \u2018walk,\u2019 and it\u2019s a popular pastime here.\u00a0 From the bureaucratic samurai of the Tokugawa period who would wander among the cherry trees and write […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53,368],"tags":[734,191,996,785,997],"class_list":["post-30221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-traveltourism","tag-event","tag-japan","tag-kumeima","tag-okinawa","tag-photos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-7Rr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30221"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30395,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30221\/revisions\/30395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}