I have checked to make sure that this story has yet to be included on Steem. So I briefly introduce this fantastic story and attach Mr. Yamada‘s facebook link so more people get to know this - an incredibly inspiring story… and the story is still ongoing…
The following information is summarized from Yamada’s facebook (in both English and Japanese) and from Mr. Lin’s fb article (he, from Taiwan and is currently also traveling around the world by bicycle, met Yamada on June 9 and later on wrote up a very good introductory story about Yamada’s 2+ year adventure, but it’s in Chinese)
Satoru Shanti Yamada, 20 years old currently, has been traveling around the world, mostly by bicycle, for 650 days (up to today, 7/21 2016). He left Japan in 2014, when he graduated from high school and had a job for 4 months, with 8,000 US dollars, an old blue backpack with some clothes inside and started his amazing journey until now (yes, he did not have a bike with him when he left home)
He first flew to Shanghai China where he ‘took’ an very old and lousy bicycle from the street (he said that he spent several days to make sure that this bike was actually abandoned), and then he rode it south, into Vietnam, Lao and then Thailand. Since Thailand, he hasn’t spent one dime on food and shelter until today - he would go to places like restaurants and ask if they could give him some food that they were gonna throw away. It turns out that people love to help strangers, especially a young and polite boy with big smiles like Yamada. He kept traveling this way - after Thailand, he has been to Malaysia, Indonesia, flew to India and stayed for 6 months, carried on to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenian and Russia (during winter!!). After that, Yamada entered North Europe, including Finland - where he spent a polar-night winter in a far-north village, Sweden, and Norway where he hit the headlines of local newspaper with his story… After that, he flew from Norway to the US with just 100 dollars. Currently he is in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada (as of July 4th) and he plans to conquer … yes, the North Pole.
(this is not Yamada’s photo. I don’t want to use his photo without his permission - but you’ve got to visit his fb to take a look of this marvelous young man and his BIG smile!)
If the story so far sounds too bizarre and distant for you, maybe the following will touch your heart or make you think or at least make you smile.
Yamada got a 1000-dollar Hilleberg tent for free in Sweden - he just ringed the company and asked for it.
His bike has broken derailleurs - both front and rear, and he uses his fingers instead
Yamada is the only son in his family and his parents said “You go. Go crazy” when he proposed his plan
Many people offered him money during the trip, but he only accepts food or stuffs
* Quoting Yamada, from Lin’s article, …. “I don’t want to live in that Fucking System.”, “Everyone is thinking about making big money, buying big houses and big cars - the world shouldn’t be like this.”, “See, your bike needs a padlock, but mine doesn’t, nobody would want to steal it…”
We all have different and good reasons to live in this Fxxx system. The question is: is it going to become a better one? At least we need to think about it for the next generation.
Thank you Yamada san for inspiring me to think again about how life should be like and I hope more people can learn about (and follow) your story and together hopefully make this world better and better day by day.
#travel #worldtouring #cycling #adventure
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