Charity on Nanikore

2022 TELL Step Up Challenge

Sun, 09 Oct 2022 01:43:34 +0000

It’s been a year since my first walk for TELL’s ‘Step Up’ challenge, and I was actually looking forward to another walk around Shonan. TELL is a great organisation which provides a call line and other support for those who need help in Japan. They focus on mental health in non Japanese languages, but also do work in Japanese too. As an NPO to fund this, they look for donations and sponsored events like the Step Up challenge.

This year they’ve developed the premise, as last year, under tighter COVID restrictions, the outdoor step idea worked well and it’s always based on the same (fairly tragic) premise - steps corresponding to the number of people who took their own lives in Japan the previous year, which would mean 21,007 for this year. This year they also added to the idea in that you can do pretty much anything to mark that number - writing a story, swimming, whatever is good for you. The event runs from September to October 10th, but it’s really about the support and getting the message out there.

I went with a slightly remixed version of what I did in 2021 - I went back to Shonan, but elected to walk the portion I enjoyed most - the river down to Enoshima, and then along the beach. There is a caveat though - I had the Friday off work due to an event in the morning; an event I did not think would be requiring much in the way of exercise. Due of this, I left my FitBit at home to charge. Only later when I saw my partner’s walking app saying we’d done 10,000 steps that morning, did I begin to believe that maybe I’d made a bit of a strategic error.

Anyway, flash forwards again, and it was nice to walk from Fujisawa station down to the river in beautiful sunshine, with the odd cloud, but certainly without the heat of the previous year. Also, this year my shoes were well broken in, whereas in 2021 I discovered those were only sort of broken in. It wasn’t an issue on the day, but let’s just say my ankles were unhappy the next day.

So off I went down the river. It’s a nice walk, mostly on asphalt down the path, sometimes on gravel and packed dirt, as it winds down towards the sea through very low-rise residential areas, and the odd municipal building. The river is crossed by multiple small road bridges, and once by the Enoshima Enoden tram system. Last year I’d waited for a while for a tram, but I must have been there during a lull in the schedule. This year as luck would have it, I literally stopped for some water, and along came a tram, so I managed to get a quick photo done.

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I mentioned in last year’s write up that I use the walk as a bit of a photo walk. Last year I brought the ancient Sony RX100 Mk1 we bought used, but this year I brought my small Fujifilm X-T200 but with the 23mm prime lens (probably not the best lens choice for the walk).

The river is always nice to walk along, but as you get closer to Katase Enoshima station the feel, and even the people ambling around changes. Given it was later on a Friday afternoon, there weren’t many tourists, and so was almost all local people doing their thing. I stopped off at the venerable Kua Aina burger place for a sit down, some salad and chicken and a large iced glass of oolon tea. Very nice it was too.

From here though, it was all beach. Last year I’d walked out to Enoshima itself, but today it would just be beach, so refreshed, I set off and started walking. The sun was already lowering in the sky, and that yellowing of the light just seems to relax everyone.

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A couple of kilometres down the beach, just after the skate park, I knew it was time to take the shoes off, and let my hairless, yet Hobbit-like flat feet get some air and do some walking, both on the sandy track, and on the beach itself. It’s such a great feeling walking on sand, as you feel all those small muscles and tendons which are usually constrained in your shoes, suddenly stretch and spread out. Then of course they ache for a couple of minutes, but after that, it’s totally fine, honest!

It’s a nice stretch of beach, and on a weekday it’s locals, fishermen, the surfers, and people like me just taking that walk.

Again as a reminder, this was later on in the afternoon, and it was nice to just walk to the west, so not only are you walking into the sunset, you’re also walking towards Mt. Fuji. As it happened, as the last sliver of sun disappeared over the horizon, there was a small crowd all watching it go. It’s quite a cool group, almost primal sensation.

Further up the beach I made the turn into Kaihin Koen, going via the path under the main road, and then out into their dark carpark. This was another nice place to sit and take in some water, and I took a photo of the pay booth at the exit, since in the very dark carpark, it’s this one isle of late.

From there, I only had a couple of thousand steps to do, so I started to walk back towards a station, along one of the main roads, and avoided the temptation to drop in for some ramen.

Overall, it was a good day for me, and to come full circle and remember the reason I was walking: not all people are as fortunate as I was that day, so if you need help, or even if you think you might need help, it’s better to ask, and if it’s awkward to talk to someone you know, give someone a call, and if you’re in Japan, try TELL.

Thanks.

TELL 21,081 Steps

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 13:03:00 +0000

COVID has meant that a lot of charity and awareness events have had to be cancelled, or reformatted - as our own Tokyo Toy Run got reworked, but it still got done which was great. TELL is an organization in Japan which provides support and counseling to those international residents with mental health needs. They run regular events to raise funds and awareness, and this year they’re running a more COVID do-able walking challenge - do 21,081 steps in a day.

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Those steps can be done solo (as I did) or as part of a team, as long as it’s on the same day. The number is to recognise the 21,081 people who took their own lives in Japan in the last year. It doesn’t seem like a lot to ask.

It’s easy to sign up, a small fee of 1,500yen, and you’ll receive a very comfortable TELL Step Up face mask.

I decided I’d do mine as a walk around the beach area of Shonan, so I planned a route from Fujisawa station, down to the beach and then to Enoshima and back, then up the coast and loop back through Tsujido to Fujisawa station.

Usually I’m on two wheels when I’m passing through, so it was actually good to be doing it on foot for for a change since it’s a different way of seeing a place, and also brought along our old point n click camera to see if I could get a few photos along the way. I should mention that the forecast was cool and overcast, but on the day it was around 30degreesC and bright blue skies.

From Fujisawa station, I went to the Sakai River and followed it to where it comes out at the Enoshima bridge road and the ocean. That’s a nice walkway next to the river, quite a few bridges if those are your thing, and quite a few people practicing canoeing down to the ocean and back on the river.

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If you’re passing at the right time you can also see the old school Enoden tram going over the river on its dedicated bridge.

At the end of the river is the Katase-Eno shima Odakyu station, which, if you haven’t seen it is quite striking in its own way, looking almost Chinese in it’s colourful design.

On this particular day, it was getting up to the mid 30s C, so I was ready for a nice cold dink and a sit down. Unfortunately for me, I was too early for many of the cafes around the station, but I did find one place, over the Benten bridge and just behind the Police box with a friendly looking egg man outside, called the Shio Cafe, so I popped inside and had some iced fresh orange juice.

After that stop it was time for the middle third, which was a walk over to the foot over Enoshima and back, which was the only time I walked the same piece of pavement twice, but it is nice to walk out and look back towards the coast of the mainland and get that different view of Mt. Fuji.

Then it was a walk up the beach track. I did most of this in my running shoes, but I’ll admit I’m a bit of a barefoot fan, so I probably did a few thousand steps on that sandy asphalt track carrying my shoes and socks and it felt good. (Walking down coasts always makes me think of The Man Up the Pole.)

My next turn was through an underpass into the Kaihin Koen and my second and final break - a great cream at the park’s Smile Cafe. It’s a nice little place, and it reminded me that in non Corona times, the park plays host to a very decent matsuri in the Summer if you’re ever around.

Sadly in some ways the rest of the walk was to be urban - a straight walk up to Tsujido station, but a reminder of all the cool little restaurants and cafes which are still going through all this COVID impact, all the traffic cramming down the roads and all the people still bustling around despite the lack of pavements, and narrow pedestrian walkways. It does make you feel good to know that it’s all still out there.

At Tsujido station, I crossed from the ‘south’ to the ’north’, that is, crossing the Tokaido-sen railway lines, which locals treat as something of a dividing line at times. On the north side of the station is the sprawling new Terrace Mall, which forms the heart of a fairly large group of retail buildings with everything from expensive bag shops to wall climbing clubs and rooftop spas commanding envious views of Mt. Fuji from an onsen.

Sadly none of this was for me yet. I still had a few thousand steps to go, fortunately in a straight line, down the path alongside the tracks,

It’s not a bad walk either, some cafes, some shops, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu club and some konbini’s and then with yet another shopping centre - Fill. It was still hot though.

And there it was, all the steps done. It felt good, though I was still another thousand away from the station and a bowl of gyudon at Yoshinoya.

This was a nice pleasant walk for me - my legs may have disagreed at points - but it was no hardship, and given what it supports, publicizes and provides funds for, it seems like something more can do. Certainly I’ll be up for it next year - or whatever even they come up with!

Tokyo Toy Run 2020

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 13:28:27 +0000

December is the month when quite a few bikers around Kanto look forward to doing the annual Tokyo Toy Run, but with COVID19 still an issue, we had to come up with something to show the children’s homes they weren’t forgotten at Xmas, but also make sure the kids and the participants weren’t put at risk.

The idea agreed upon was that we’d meet at our usual spot - a large [outdoor] service area car park on the Tomei expressway near Ebina, where we’ve met for the last few years, since it provides enough space to socially distance a lot of people. We’d then collect all the gifts in the back of a few cars, and volunteers would drive them to the childrens homes.

Since there was no ‘ride in’ to the homes we stayed at the service area from between 8 - 11am, much longer than we usually would, but we wanted to make sure people would have time to get there and drop off gifts, and safely chat without it being crammed into just an hour or so, as was the way in previous years when everyone would be delivering their own gifts.

On the day, in that window I think we had at least a similar number of bikes (and cars) stop by as a normal year (~70+), drop off gifts and say hello before heading off. It was also nice we got a lot of support as usual from families passing through in their cars, which is a good way to spread the word, and as usual, I’m pretty sure we picked up some potential new people for next year.

It feels good we could hold up at least half of the event. The second half is very much the ride in, playing with the kids, giving them rides on the back of bikes and sharing some food with them. I think we all missed that this year, but at least we could put together something since the organisers were very aware of a conversation that was had the very first year we did it off the back of the Gaijin Riders forum, which was that for the kids sake, they didn’t want it to be a one off, and so far we’ve managed over a decade despite quakes, typhoons and now pandemics.

The forum where this particular event was started eleven years ago has now moved to Facebook and the namesake website has since been bought up by another entity, but we do have a normal Facebook page for the event, and from this year another normal domain - Toy Run Japan - for those not on FB.

If you want more details on the event, check out any of these links and make a mental note or put in a reminder for next December - there’s a very good chance we’ll be doing it all again.

Merry Xmas!

Kiva Update - Two Loans!

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 02:17:46 +0000

Kiva is an organisation which works with micro-finance organisations all over the world to provide loans to help people move forwards with their ideas and businesses. Essentially, several people, sometimes many, pool their money to extend a loan to a person or group they select from the Kiva website.

I made my first Kiva loan in 2011 of 25 USD to a group in Viet Nam, the second was to a sewing services, the third was to a man in Kenya, looking to build his motorbike transportation business. I won’t deny my love of motorbiking played a part in that last one. However, this has been that same 25 USD going around, so I’ve added another 25 USD (as well as a small donation to Kiva itself) and made two more small loans this time around.

The first new loan is to another Kenyan motorbike transportation chap, and the second is to a Balinese crafts family. This latter one is the first time then that I’ve lent money into a country I’ve actually been to.

This brings my money-lent level in total to 125 USD, well below the Kiva average of 333USD. One must try harder. Kiva knows this and provides plenty of statistics and badges on your portfolio in the hope it might make you want to cover that last country you haven’t lent into yet.

It’s worth remembering that this is a loan, not a donation, and many recipients are looking to build businesses, or better themselves for their communities, and unlike a donation, you stand a very good chance (98%+) of getting your money back to loan it out again, or even take it out of Kiva.

Give it a try then. I have to say it’s quite inspirational reading about some of the ideas people have for businesses and how to better their lives in other ways, such as via trying to fund further education.

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

Paul Brown — 2014-08-28

Do you have a Kiva team that you donate on behalf of? Not that I have an ulterior motive and want you to join my team (http://www.kiva.org/team/smrt) or anything…

Tokyo Toy Run 2012

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:50:33 +0000

Another December means another opportunity to do a Toy Run. Bottom line: a bunch of bikers get together, deck the bikes with tinsel , dress up as Father Christmas, and go and spend the day with some kids at a couple of local Childrens Homes.

I wrote up the previous ones from 2009, 2010 and 2011, which were all a little different, but equally fun. This year was no exception; due to some scheduling issues with one of the homes, we decided to take the whole group to both homes in one day, instead of splitting the group. We also changed the meet up point from Tokyo, to the Ebina service area in Kanagawa, to allow for more pillion riders, and to make some of the logistics for non Tokyo riders, that little bit simpler. In the end, these all turned out to be great decisions.

We always manage to score great weather, and I rode the 45Km up to the Ebina SA (I live much closer, but took a long route to get in the right direction) with my Santa outfit on, and the bike all decked out, so I was getting looks and waves from kids in passing cars, and even a request for a present from a guy on a construction site whilst I was waiting at some traffic lights. It was cold, very cold, but a beautiful day, with bright blue skies. It’s also worth noting that a Santa hat and beard securely fastened to your safety approved helmet is about as aerodynamic as a big pillow on an expressway.

Ahead of schedule I met up with the riders already at the meet-up point, and we were already getting a lot of questions and requests for photos from just members of the public passing through what is a busy rest area on the Tomei Expressway, even at 9am on a Sunday morning.

We cruised out of there to a fair smattering of applause, and a lot of very curious looks as perhaps thirty plus bikes snaked our way onto the Expressway to make our way down to the the first children’s home. On the short video below, we went through one toll booth and there was a Police bike parked near it and he really didn’t know what to make of it. Shame he couldn’t join in.

Near the first home, we met up with some others who were joining from a different route, and all together we rolled in, and the kids loved it. Whilst some of us played games with the kids, we ate some soup and some pizza, handed out the gifts, and some of the kids got rides on the back of some of the bikes.

After a couple of hours, we were off again to the second home, making our way down the coastal road, getting a lot of waves from fellow bikers, as it’s a really popular route. The second place is a little smaller, so we were cramming the bikes in, but the kids there are great too, and they’d also made some good soup, and cooked up some pizzas we’d brought, in a home made pizza oven, and we stood and chatted, played bingo and let them take the tinsel off a lot of the bikes.

We learned quickly that the gifts are important, but the kids really like the bikes, chatting with us, wearing the Santa outfits, and really just having a bit of a party, which is what it’s all about. It’s sometimes amazing how the kids are growing up too, and some are getting jobs, and the small ones, just babies in 2009, are now walking and talking. It must be a difficult start for some of them, but I think these kids are going to make a really good go of life, and I hope next year they let us come back again, and see if we can make it that little bit better once more.

https://vimeo.com/55669892

Tokyo Toy Run 2011

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:50:47 +0000

Last Sunday - December 11th - I joined in the third annual Tokyo Toy Run 2011 version, where a group of bikers meet up in Tokyo and Ride out in convoy and in groups down into Kanagawa prefecture to deliver toys and other gifts to a couple of children’s homes, and then spend some time with the kids.

This year I thought I’d have some of my own drama the night before when I had to announce my 5.5 year old battery to be dead, and so I headed out to NAPS in the car at 6.30pm to pick up a new one, and give it a test run. The next morning I was up at 5.30am tying on bits of tinsel and such onto the bike, taking care again to make sure nothing was going to sit on the hotter parts of the engine but still look festive. I’d also managed to obtain a Santa suit from Don Quixote which actually fit not just me, but also go over the leather jacket and the Draggin Jeans. It’s still a mystery that many nations see Santa/Father Christmas as a jolly, large fellow, and yet most Santa suits are for people who weigh 60-70Kg. Indeed. I decided to attach the white beard set to my helmet, which worked much better than I expected.

I met up with a couple of riders locally at 6.30, and we were running in towards the meeting space in Odaiba. It’s a beautiful urban ride in, going past the docks and cranes and factories on the expressway as the sun comes up, and see the planes taking off from Haneda airport as we go under much of it, and then over the rivers on the bridges, getting another great view. Once again, the weather was great - we’ve always been so lucky for the weather on these runs.

We all met up with the other riders at the RicoLand Carpark, and it wasn’t a bad turn out with plenty of bikers, bikes, decorations and a couple of vans to fill with gifts. We then went through a quick run through of the plan, including the one stop we’d be making en route, and the groups we’d split into from there to go on to the two children’s homes. The runs are always great, and each year it seems to get smoother getting through the ETC toll booths, the gents in the booths seem that little less freaked out at a group of (largely gaijin) bikers, many dressed as Santa, trying to get on the expressway. It also reminds me how happy I am to have invested the outrageous sum into getting ETC fitted to my bike a few years ago.

On the road as a bike convoy is always fun, we just have to be careful to make sure we’re not stopping people getting on and off the freeway - sometimes not as easy as it sounds. One point of having this many bikes in one place is that the tunnels are deafening - the only way you know your engine is on is to look at your revs. We stopped at Daikokufuto, which is a service area in the centre of doughnut upon doughnut of roads, to meet up with a few more people, get our photos taken with a lot of very curious people who themselves were on trips - including with small dogs with santa coats…

From there we split into two groups, and again I went with the group for the Chigasaki Farm children’s home, and whilst we may have taken a wrong turn, we did get to the venue not too far behind schedule, after a run through historic Kamakura, and along route 134 along the beach which was fantastic - riding along looking at Enoshima to your left, and Mt. Fuji in the distance to your right: fantastic.

The venues, the children’s homes are really where the days start - rolling in as a group, all bikes and vans and filling up the small parking areas, then meeting the kids, playing sports and really getting to know them. As I’d been here twice before (the Toy Run last year, and a BBQ we did this last Summer) it was was great to see some familiar faces and catch up with what was going on - some were even getting jobs and going out into the world, which is great.

For once I missed the sports, but chatted with a lot of the kids, had photos taken with the smaller kids with the rest of the Santas, and once the pizza we ordered for the event arrived, sat around for a while talking, playing Uno and enjoying some of the gifts we’d brought. I should say, Chigasaki Farm made a fantastic soup for us, which, after a few hours on a bike in winter felt so much better than that pizza! A lot of the kids were playing volleyball, and throwing American footballs and just spending a good afternoon outside on a nice day - even if the resident dog did destroy a couple of the balls!

Once people had eaten the food, played a lot of games and energy levels were dropping, we all sat around one of the patio areas and played a couple of rounds of bingo, before having more photos taken with the kids, this time on the bikes (now that they’d cooled), and finally, somewhat reluctantly, got back on the bikes and headed off home as the sun was beginning to set.

It’s amazing how fast the time goes on the toy run, from that early start to getting to the kids over 120Km later for me, to doing some games and sitting and talking, to leaving feels like just a couple of hours - not essentially a whole day.

OK, so what are the benefits? Well for one, the kids get to spend a day with people they don’t usually meet and just talk and have fun - this is what we often hear from the staff and volunteers at the homes - they love the gifts and the toys, but what they like is that these often funny and a bit whacky bunch of bikers are happy to come in dressed as Santa and just talk, throw a frisbee, be chased, have reindeer tails pulled and just relax with them. I know one thing debated on the forums after the event is always that of who got the better deal, us or the kids! In the last three years I haven’t seen a single biker, even the tough military ones, who aren’t putting the smaller three- and four year old kids on their shoulders and running them around the yards, and for those of us with similar aged kids, feeling that concern that these kids will be OK. The truth is, I think most of them will be, they’re fun and smiles, they’re resilient, cheeky and witty and easy to get on with, but the places also need the odd day of distraction.

2011 has obviously been a tough year on Japan, and it’s going to be for a while to come, and it’s fair to say that for some of those outside of the mainstream society who rely on government support and volunteers, things are very tough, and its rewarding to know that it’s actually quite simple even for a relatively small group of people to pick a day, pool some money and really help out some kids who themselves are going through a lot as it is - we should all do it more often.

(NB/ There’s one more Toy Run in Yamanashi next Saturday - Dec. 17th!)

Kamakura Beach Party '06

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:01:11 +0000

Just a reminder that the Kamakura Beach Party ‘06 will be this Saturday (19th). It ’s a great day at the beach with live music, lots of beer and food, and to top it all, it’s all for a good cause - the Christina Noble Foundation. There’s an e-mail version of the flier with a map below, so have a look. Also, the ‘Rocking Buddha’ image was done by old friend Rudolf, so thanks again for that.

Or take a look at the web page of one of the organisers at BrentoLeary.com.