I have decided to write this book with ambitions to have only healthy people on earth.
I believe if you keep walking, you stay healthy and young. And I do want to everybody to know this.
But you have to WALK for many hours to get that effect. It may sound tiresome and boring, but it is not. After you get used to walking, it is fun and refreshing!
Gear
Unless you walk without carrying anything,a must item is a backpack. It is not an elegant carrier, but it is perfect for a long walk. I used to go for a walk with a shoulder bag and did some grocery shopping returning home. But my neck started to give me pain. Only after that I realized how good backpack is for my body.
I believe it is a time-saving tool as well. You don't have to do grocery shopping separately. You have a backpack so that you can put any item you buy in it.
Best shoes are sneakers for me. Though sometimes during summer I walk in inexpensive sandals. Amazingly they are good and won't blacken your toes as sneakers do occasionally. And they are durable. They last at least two summers. After that I throw them away to be on the safe side.
And do not forget a holding umbrella and a water bottle when walking for a day.
Food
I am not a gourmet so I don't go to good restaurants while walking although sometimes there are special food they offer in different regions. I usually carry small snacks to eat here and there and that is enough for me.
Sometimes I go to cafeteria to rest.
Spending time to eat can be tricky because you end up missing a train which runs only once an hour.
To save time, I experimented to eat while walking. After all that wasn't such a good idea as a passer-by said hello to me and I couldn't say hello back to him!
Having said that, eat anything you want!
Fletcherism
People often say it is impossible to walk long distances. To tell you the truth, it was same with me until I come across Fletcherism. Only after that I started walking different places. Fletcherism is a way of life to keep you healthy. Mr. Horace Fletcher(1849-1919) found this after being sick and being rejected for life insurance policy. It is not so difficult as you may imagine. All you have to do is to chew food many times before swallowing. (Chew at least 30 times)
I used to have some pain in my legs after a couple of hours of walk. But somehow after adopting Fletcherism, a few hours of walk is nothing for me!
Near death experiences
It may be the main reason why I want to write this book.
You may have heard that near death experiences change ones way of life and you may wish you have that kind of experiences.
Well, you don't have to die (even for a short time) , to get that effect. All you have to do is, yeah, walk!
A very famous Japanese poet Bashou (1644-1694) wrote one of his most important poems after he walked through dark and dangerous woods in his famous travel journal "oku no hosomichi". I like this part very much because it is exactly same as how I felt when I had to go through an old tunnel in the mountainous region.
He is said to have acquired new views of things. And his poems become almost cosmic .
As for me, I am more grateful for being alive and all the things such as water fountains, trains, roads and so on.
Health and beauty
You may be waiting to hear how walking makes you young. I can't tell you exactly how but it does! I have almost the same figure for about 30 years (which is as same as Emma Watson's as height and weight wise). I don't say it makes you beautiful but having youngish figure is very important, isn't it?
I haven't been to any hospitals for sometime. No money for medicine is spent.
And I do not go to gyms either. But I do some exercise called "jikyou jutsu "in the evening for about 10 minutes or so. That's all.
Shopping
When I asked one of my female friends to go walking with me, she declined saying she likes shopping. Hearing this, I thought she has a point. When I did shopping, the walk becomes more memorable and fun. Even a normal pair of socks at a normal supermarket can be memorable. So I suggest you do shopping while walking. Visiting different stores in different regions can be exciting.
Where to walk
You can walk anywhere as long as there is a road. However I realized walking along busy one is no fun. My favorite walk is along ancient roads which people used to walk for travel . Sometimes you find interesting historical monuments along the way. There may not be good maps that cover those roads as our society assume we travel by cars or trains. In that case, just searth the web! Amazingly you will often find somebody who did the walk and provide some information.
Where I walked
From Kyoto to Osaka
It took me 3 days to complete. I didn't take the ancient road, instead I walked along bicycle road which is quite easy to follow and refreshing.
From Kyoto to Kobe
There was a good map provided by some governmental office online.
http://www.pref.osaka.lg.jp/doroseibi/kakusyusesaku/rekishikaidou.html
Relying on this map, it took me 6 days to complete the walk.
By train its only 1 hour ride, still, I felt good when I reached Kobe.
From Kyoto to Tokyo (Toukaidou)
Except for about 50km in Kanagawa, I almost completed this 500km walk. Only hilly parts are suzuka-goe in mie and Hakone touge in Kanagawa. It was kind of scary to walk those parts because there are almost none except who enjoy ancient road walking. But I haven't felt any danger walking these parts and in the end, you end up in historical town which you won't see in busy everyday life.