The Kennewick-Man Expedition, DAY 44

Although I never predicted it at the planning phase of this adventure, many local people, who I met at places where I reached by the kayak, have offered me fervent supports. And more, sometimes, they introduced their friends to me directly, or my story was circulated from them to other persons indirectly, so that fervent supports from new people waited me at the next points of arrival. The mind of the fervent support was passed on from person to person to a faraway land beyond a long distance at a speed faster than that of my kayak travel. And then new friends also greeted me in welcome and helped me without stint of time and money; they gave me selfless affection. I am glad not only to get affection itself but also to know through the experience that affection can propagate from people to people. I can really feel how huge the planet Earth is, because I am moving by only human power. And also I am witnessing that the affections are propagating on the large planet Earth as if in small neighborhood. Now I can feel that the planet Earth is large and also small. Although human physical bodies scatter and live on the large planet Earth, human souls may live in harmony on the small asteroid the little prince lives on. If we dig up affections rooted in the hearts, human souls may connect each other without national boundaries as a neighbor. I want to believe that I can see the rays of hope to mankind.



When I prepared for the departure in Kennewick, Phillip, who is a yachtsman I met in Port of Kennewick, gathered various information about the Columbia River for me. It served as the catalyst for passing my story far to Nobuyuki Suga through outdoor shops, so he kindly made a phone call to me to ask if he could help me with something. And then, he waited for my arrival in here Vancouver. The affection of Phillip propagated to Nobuyuki. Although we met for the first time, surprisingly Nobuyuki and Ritsuko, his wife, let me stay at their house and cared me for five nights and six days.

First, they had a hard time to search around the Columbia River for me who was not able to land on anywhere in the town of Portland and roved in the river, and then they carried my kayak from Portland to their house in Vancouver the next day.

Nobuyuki is a nice person of open and straightforward personality. And Ritsuko is a beautiful and affectionate lady, and makes very delicious Japanese food with umami flavor. Every night after Nobuyuki came home from work, we enjoyed that tasty dinners and comparing tastes of countless kinds of micro-brewed beers which are too many to remember. Although that dinners alone were enough hospitality, in the day time Ritsuko warmly drove me to shopping, took me sightseeing to around Bonneville Dam, and so on. And I played with Yuna, their cute daughter, and Akiya, their active son. Thanks to those, my body which lived in the tiny tent for one and half month continuously was recharged full of energy, and also I was able to replenish food and equipments.



And also Matt, Mayor of Pasco we became friends in Kennewick, kindly introduced Dennis York, his motorcycle friend living in Vancouver, to me. And then, Dennis and Karen, his wife, invited me to dinner warmly. Affection propagated also. He is a strong person who drove a motorcycle through all states in the USA excluding Hawaii for only nine days. That is an astonishing record and is not easy to imagine as well as Matt’s one. I am fascinated with large scale outdoor sports in the USA. Thanks to them I enjoyed wonderful time.