Following Basho

July 20, 1983, Wednesday

Started at 6:30am on a cloudy and cold morning. I first thought I had the whole day to myself to run freely for the 60km to Kisakata. I was feeling good, running easily, until someone hopped out of a car all ready to run. This happened at around 7:00am.

At first I was a bit disappointed that I would not be running alone, but the feeling went away. This man, Mr. Tanaka, joining me today turned out to be a very kind, quiet runner who gave me my space as I ran my pace on the road. Unlike the other gung-ho runners, Mr. Tanaka respected my need for some quiet time while I put in my distance. He ran about 50km of the way with me, and at that point, I think he realized why I had preferred to run alone--He was not very talkative in the later parts of the 50km!

I ended up going a bit longer than intended today because we had passed the Youth Hostel by a couple of kilometers. Just 3 more weeks--I've got to make it through just 3 more weeks. I am going to try to enjoy these last remaining days of the run as much as possible.

By the way, I am now in Akita prefecture. The poet Bashō visited Kisakata as part of his 1689 travels in Honshu, and composed a famous waka about Kisakata's islands. However, an eruption of Mount Chōkai in 1804 caused the seabed to rise, and the islands are now surrounded by land, not water. There is a statue of Bashō at the Kanman Temple, which he visited.