Metro Minutes, a free magazine that connects Tokyo and the local community, is thinking of sports tourism by editor-in-chief Furukawa

About running in Kochi Prefecture

I loved Hawaii and used to travel often before it became such a world. I am surprised (why), but when asked where the most favorite city in the world is, I try to answer Honolulu without hesitation.

In the city of Honolulu, the majority of the people there are on holiday, and most of the people who work there are involved in "tourism". Therefore, both those who take a break and those who welcome it are premised on that, so the stress in staying is less anyway. The quality of the sun's light, like mid-year summer, is clearly different from that of Japan, and is soft, gentle and positive. There is no such thing as Japan's dizzy summer. Everyone in the city is laughing, and if you walk a little, you can see the sea. If you want to shop, you'll get everything from high brands to spam rice balls right away, and if you don't want to meet anyone, you'll lie down on the hotel's poolside deck and have a weird color cocktail (for some reason I'll order it.…I hope you can read a book while drinking. When we arrive in Honolulu, we don't move around, but it's best to stay as if we live there. I loved the style of "living journey".

When you stay in Honolulu, you usually bring your running shoes. One of the pleasures of the trip is running around before waking up in the hotel and taking a shower. If you drive a little through Kalakaua Boulevard, it will be a local residential area even in Honolulu. Run the city you don't know at your own pace. There is a shop that I don't know in an alley that I don't know, and an early aunt is drying my laundry. Every city has a ‘life’. By running through the city in the morning, you can know it. In the same way, I wake up early and run, and greet each other with the people who live there. So I’m going to assimilate into the city.

If you take a shower and eat breakfast, you will no longer have the planned schedule. On a day when I have nothing to do, I go out to the seaside and go into the sea on a heavy surfboard that can be borrowed for $10. Honolulu's merrow waves break off the coast, not too large, and have more power than they look, so you can ride long. The city of Honolulu, seen from above the sea, looks like a paradise of the world, unlike anything seen from the land. At that moment, I know. Yes, Hawaii is a paradise.

The COVID-19 pandemic continued for a long time, making it impossible to travel far away. When I couldn't go to Honolulu, I went on a trip with running shoes in Kochi. As a result, I became connected to Kochi Prefecture, and I became a related population of Kochi Prefecture. Now it has become a place to go many times a year, and there is no special excitement about the airport. I started to put dinner in my favorite shop without hesitation. Of course, that's not a bad meaning, and maybe it's proof that Kochi Prefecture is no longer special for me. Anyway, I loved Kochi Prefecture.

When I started running from a small hotel outside the city where I always stay, holding the string of Nike's running shoes, I felt that this place was already a "daily" for me. If you run from the hotel on the back of the station, you will immediately go to the Kagami River. Although it is a river flowing through the center of the city, the water quality is surprisingly transparent and beautiful. Speaking of which, Mr. Sashide, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Sotokoto", recalls that Kochi Prefecture is a rare town where you can catch fish that is only in places with clean water in the city.

It has been a long time since I have become close to Yuzu farmers in Kitagawa Village in the eastern part of Kochi Prefecture and have been going to the village. There was a hot spring inn in the back of the village, and more people stayed there. When you wake up early and run on the fantastic mountain path that hazes in the morning fog, you will hear the voices of birds and the babbling of the river. Those sounds that you can’t hear during the day deliver something special to me at the beginning of the day. Breakfast eaten after sweating during running and sweating at the hot spring in the inn is, of course, more delicious than any breakfast.

I can't forget the world seen from the canoe I experienced in the Niyodo River in Ochi. The color of the water reflected on the bottom of the skeleton canoe floating on the water, the blueness of the sky looked up, and the green of the trees. Everything looks like a miracle, and I really remember thinking, "Oh, I'm having the earth play now."

Kochi Prefecture accounts for 84% of the total area and is known as the prefecture with the highest forest rate in Japan. There are beautiful rivers flowing from the mountains such as the Shimanto River and the Niyodo River, and the magnificence of the sea where the river flows. To put it simply, this place has a rich nature. To be exaggerated without saying simply, there is something like the earth's surface here.

Can we accept it?　I think it's different from people. There will be some who think this place is not enough. But at least for me, Kochi Prefecture is a place full of rich earth beauty. And the reason why I enjoyed the beauty was sports. I started running there, entering the river, soaking in the sea. In order to connect with nature, sports such as running, canoeing and surfing were the hubs.

I don't know if it's okay to put this into the term sports tourism. But for me, running in that city is nothing more than knowing that city. Now that I know how to do this, I keep putting my running shoes in my bag every time I travel. And breathe in the morning air of an unknown city and carry your feet forward with rhythm. And I feel the joy of being accepted by the city.

Hawaii was a paradise on earth for me. Kochi Prefecture has become a paradise of everyday life for me. It is Kochi Prefecture that taught me that my daily life is such a free and fun place. I can go anywhere, and I can have relationships everywhere. And I can run every city on my own feet. Today, I still feel that happiness with my body while running in the morning city somewhere in Japan.

Mun Makoto Furukawa