Walking The Length of Japan – On Stilts!

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We see a lot of interesting and crazy adventures here on this blog, but this one kind of takes the cake. Reader Alan Curr tipped me off to this story about a couple in Japan who spent much of 2009 walking the entire length of the country, north to south, to raise funds for the Borneo Orangutan Survival Fund. That’s a distance of over 1865 miles. And did I mention that they did it all on stilts?

Mick and Miki Tan of Chiba, Japan set out on their Pongo Hogo Hogo Challenge from the northernmost area of the country last July, on what they described as a journey of “1 year, 2 stilts, 3 thousand kms”. Their route was broken down into several segments, and of course they blogged their progress as well.

According to the most recent updates on their site, it seems that they reached their final destination early last week, and it seems that they arrived back home on Tuesday of this week. They did post a link to a video from a documentary film crew that followed them around for their six months on stilts, and you can see a clip of Mick and Miki below.

What a fun and interesting expedition this must have been. They’re still trying to raise funds for their case and have fallen a bit short of their goal, so if you’d like to contribute head over to their donations page.

mick & miki 竹馬で日本縦断の旅 放送映像 from Studio FiLce on Vimeo.

Kraig Becker

7 thoughts on “Walking The Length of Japan – On Stilts!”

  1. Their forest home is being burned to the ground, they suffer abuse at the hands of human captors and many orangutan babies become orphans. Forests are being damaged at the rate of an area approximately the size of two football fields every minute in the country, contributing especially to climate change and driving the orangutan closer to destruction with the defeat of every acre. Orangutans are so much like us, up till now we humans are killing them by the thousand. To me that is genocide and it has to stop.

    Best Regards,

  2. Glad everyone enjoyed the story. It's a really good one, and I thought it was worth sharing for multiple reasons. It's a good cause, and the story put a smile on my face. 🙂

  3. Dear Kraig,
    A big thanks to you for the write up on this great site and to Alan Curr for introducing the challenge to you!
    The feet are still numb and although we hated the stilts at times, it's funny how you miss things as soon as they're gone! Hope we never have to say that about the orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra!

    We're looking forward to being inspired by The Adventure Blog!

    Thanks again!

    Mick and Miki

  4. Mick and Micki,

    It was my pleasure to write about your great adventure for a great cause. I agree with you, lets make sure that these wonderful primates are protected and safe. Great work on your part!

    Kraig

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