I am Mr.Sommer
Beginning in Kagoshima, walking north across Japan—
I was often asked, why do you walk?
It all began three days before I came to Japan.
I was just planning a simple trip,
when suddenly, a signal struck—
walk across Japan.
I didn’t know why.
I didn’t know how it would even be possible.
But deep in my heart,
it felt like something I had already done.
At the beginning,
I only wanted one thing—
tranquility of the mind.
I was lost
in a chaotic, noisy world.
So I walked,
to heal myself.
Somewhere along the way,
words found me.
From Master Hongyi—
like a cloudy sky quietly clearing.
children Along the road,
they looked at me and asked—
where are you going?
And I began to wonder
if I was walking for them too.
Or maybe…
it is for peace.
I am American,
with Taiwanese and Chinese roots,
raised on stories like Doraemon,
learning Japanese through them.
Somewhere along this journey,
a quiet wish began to form—
that these four places I carry within me
could one day exist in peace.
And maybe, without realizing it,
my walking itself has become something else—
a quiet resistance.
Because in a world that is always moving faster,
walking is seen as inefficient,
unnecessary… even irrational.
But to walk—
to move at the pace of the body,
to feel distance, time, and encounter fully—
perhaps that, too,
is a way of living
this world has forgotten.
