30 km walk.. dekita!!

Saruku Walk '06 is a project organized by the city of Nagasaki to promote tourism in the city. They put on many different types of events, such as guided tours around the city, sporting events etc.

This weekend, they had organized 3 different walking courses: 7km, 20km, and 30 km long. Chewy from Oita, Huihui from Obama, Erica from Kumamoto and I decided to do the 30km walk!

Everyone arrived in Nagasaki on friday evening, and we met up at the opening ceremony location bright and early at 8:30am on Saturday. Before the walk started, we were given bags with lots of freebies (Tshirts, towels, maps, snacks, etc.). We were all given a huge namesheet to safety pin on, on which we wrote our names, where we come from and which course we were going to be attempting.

There were people who had come from as far as away as Osaka just to do this walk!

The weather forecast predicted heavy rains the whole day, but we were determined to do the walk! So we dressed accordingly and readied ourselves for the walk. The trails takes you all around the city, by many of the big tourist attractions, famous monuments, through residential areas, parks, up and down mountains etc. There were checkpoints along the way where you had to get your map stamped. There were huge arrows that were strategically placed around the city to help keep people on the right path.

The 30 km walk was scheduled to begin at 10am, and by 9 am, it had stopped raining.

The TV crew was there to record the event. After having gone through the registration, we were wandering around, mentally preparing ourselves for the upcoming walk, when one of the TV crew members asked us to hold up our pin on sheet so he could take a picture. When he saw that we'd written where we live in Japan, he asked us first to write our home countries before we take the picture. Later on, the TV crew came up to us again and asked if we could smile and wave for the camera. They asked us to keep it up for about 25 seconds, (but it felt much longer..!). It will air on May 27th. We might be on TV!!

Here we are with the Saruku mascots, holding up our pin ons.

The first part of the walk takes you towards Inasayama, which is very hilly. We crossed the new bridge in Nagasaki.

Walked by Urakami Church
The famous Peace Statue found in the peace park
Stopped at the Site of the 26 martyrs (where Chewy was accosted by the TV crew)

15km into the race, still going strong!

Crossed over Megane Bridge

I dont think i'd ever looked at a sign saying 5km to go and thought 'Yes! ONLY 5 km left!'

MADE IT!!

Cooling down after the walk


It took us about 6 hours to complete the course. The majority of the people participating in the 30 km walk were elderly, I couldn't believe what good shape they were in! We could not keep up with them!! There were 1400 who completed the 7km course, 330 for the 20 km, and only 202 who completed the 30 km course.

We were so done-in after the walk, we took a taxi to Hamanomachi (maybe a 4 min ride) where we had dinner at a kaitenzushi restaurant. Later on, took a taxi to the train station to head back home.

The legs that walked a combined distance of 120 km!!! A big Otskaresama deshita!

The next morning, we woke up feeling the effects of having walking for too long the day before. We spent a long time at 'Joyfull' having breakfast/lunch, then drove up to Ishaya to visit Megane Bridge (different from the one in Nagasaki city).

Everyone headed back to their city/prefecture in the late afternoon. It was a great weekend, spent in great company! :)

My leg is aching so much, I used some of the cooling pads that I was given when I was discharged from the hospital. I hope I will be ok for school tomorrow...!!