I am a somewhat disorganized yet, coherent, tidy, clean, healthy and happy Irishman with few regrets. I have lived my life somewhat backwards (e.g. travelled, worked, educated, born, and reborn, etc, etc, etc). In general, my views and outlooks on life are quite open minded and liberal. I have a very good sense of humor and love the company of similar minded people. I am also a lover of hiking, long distance cycling, camping and large (American style) motorbikes, to name a few of my interests. These are all the more worthwhile when done with someone you are comfortable with. Right? When I have free time I just love getting away from Tokyo (on my bicycle or on my motorbike) to some relaxing and interesting place.
If that is not possible, then I love to talk to friends. I honestly don't know what friends say about me. I am sure they say so much, or at least they think about me, I hope so as I think about them. Ha! Or like Oscar Wilde once said: "The only thing worse in the world than being talked about is not being talked about". So true! On the whole, I think better of those people who talk directly to my face than behind my back.
What makes me happy is a sense of achievement in all things I set out to accomplish. I wonder if this also includes that thing we call 'love'? What makes me Upset or Frustrated? Stupid people -- racists, bigots, and warmongers, or even the blood and gore in war movies. On the other hand, I have so many favorite movies, or two that come to mind: 'Love is a Many Splendored Thing' (1955), staring Jennifer Jones and William Holden; and 'Roman Holiday' (1953), with the great Audrey Hepburn, not to forget Gregory Peck. Why I like this film so much is that the film is about prejudice and overcoming it regardless of the consequences. Of course, I think, why one likes a film so much is really in the eyes of the beholder.
My favorite music? I like many kinds of music. Perhaps classical is foremost among my favorites as it can be very relaxing and thought provoking. Also, movie theme music really brings memories flowing back to me -- times, people, places, etc. Oh how I long for those yesterdays again! As to my favorite animals, I like all animals, especially dogs. It is said that a man's best friend is his dog, right?
Recent years had brought an enormous burst of energy and ideas out of me to see Japan proper. My stay in Japan stimulated inspiration enough to do something big. To many people this might have meant making pot loads of money. For me, however, I hated that necessary evil, money. Nothing was free in Japan, and everything had its price. Books, which I loved to read, were not exactly cheap. If they were enlightening then it was money well spent. Books were what had initially sparked my interest in Japan. Thanks to books, too, an appreciation for nature added to my growing intellectual curiosity on the country. Therefore, I liked to think that books had served me well in my scholarly inquisitive quest for that thing called, ‘self-improvement’. Of course, self-improvement was an ambiguous term, as it meant so many different things to different people.
On top of the books, or rather what I got from them, my travels around the world served to reinforce my confidence in life and in people, and of course in myself, too. How did it come to pass that despite my initial experience and general enthusiasm for travel, I had become aware of and very interested in the size, shape, and ways of other cultures more than my own? Whenever I visited Belfast in particular or Ireland at large, I always felt like an outsider looking in. Sad! Whatever the reasons, the sights and sounds, and experiences gained on my travels confirmed in me a dedication to put what I could down on paper as a profession.
Some people might have seen my writing as a mere compilation of daily articles. Perhaps there was some truth here, however, I have tried to extend my hand to my readers to have them experience life on the roads with me through my words. The pages in this journal that follow described my time on the road in the context of nature, people, attitude , traditions, and institutions, etc. ‘Irishman Walking’ was about my walking the coastal roads of Japan through a series of summer, winter, spring, and autumn stages. Stage 1 began in Cape Soya in Hokkaido in the summer of 2009, and ended in Noshiro City in Akita Prefecture seven weeks later. Last summer (2012), Stage 8 started at Shibushi Port in Kagoshima Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu, and ended in the city of Fukuoka six weeks later. Stage 9 started at Fukuoka and ended in Hiroshima City on the island of Honshu. The stage lasted for three weeks. Stage 10 was planned to start from Hiroshima this coming spring and to end in the city of Okayama in late-March 2013. The stage is planned to last for two weeks. Last, but not least, the conclusion of each stage left me with good reasons for optimism, and one-step nearer to successfully completing my mission. “Mmm!” For a fleeting moment I wondered when it was all over would I still be known as an expert on long distance walking? Perhaps not!