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.

Mental Health Motorbike

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 15:07:47 +0000

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A couple of months ago I heard about the Mental Health MotorCycle initiative. It’s an organisation in the UK run by some great people, who are looking at ways to help bikers with mental health issues they might have. To assist in this, they work with Mental Health First Aid England to provide their 2 Day Mental Health First Aider training course.

Like its namesake, it’s designed to help non-medical people recognise those experiencing mental health issues, and teaches you to provide some kind of support until people with more knowledge and experience can assist.

I’ve just completed the remote version of the course, made up of four Zoom based classes on four days, spread over two weeks. It’s based on a manual to read portions of (I had the online version), and a workbook to make notes in and review case studies to review as part of the class.

My class was made up of about 12 students, and led by an excellent instructor, Andy Elwood. Andy has quite a mental health story of his own, but I don’t want to go into that here - absolutely go to his site and see for yourself. He’s definitely the kind of person you want in your corner on a topic like this.

I’m never going to do the course justice in a blog post, but believe me, it was incredibly helpful, even when going into some deep and heavy subjects like suicide and psychosis. It covers a lot of ground, but the manual is really helpful and well constructed.

A core component is the ALGEE model, which frames and discusses five-steps people can use in assisting those in need:

A - Approach - assess for crisis (Approach, Assess and Assist).
L - Listen - listen and communicate non judgementally.
G - Give - give support and information - not advice!
E - Encourage - encourage appropriate professional help such as EAP.
E - Encourage - encourage other support such as family, friend, comminuty, groups.

Once you complete the four sessions and the online homework, you can pass and get your certificate of being a Mental Health First Aider.

I’d definitely encourage anyone to take the course - not just to help others, it can also really help yourself, by educating yourself and apply a mental health eye in that direction. Cost-wise it’s around 220GBP, and since it’s based in the UK, it’s done on UK time - the sessions start at 18:00 GMT, meaning for me in Japan they ran from 4am! I have to say that the other participants were all friendly and smart people, creating a relaxed atmosphere, and it made the 2.5hour sessions, even at that early hour, just fly by, which is always a sign in itself.

All told, give it a go. I think you’ll benefit.

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Mental-Health on Nanikore

2022 TELL Step Up Challenge

Mental Health Motorbike