One year to go until the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge.
Komochan here, working through a great many things as I go.
Today is the first day of the crowdfunding campaign, so I am writing this to report and to say thank you.
On this first day, more than ten people gave.
Among them were plenty of people I am not in daily contact with, and not especially close to, which simply astonished me. The warmth and the weight of that sincerity went right through me.
My thanks from the heart.
Every time the crowdfunding platform told me of a contribution, I rang that person to say thank you.
I would really like to meet each of them and say it in person, but on the phone I was able to tell them about the struggle that led here, and about what comes next.
And I received a great many warm words, worth more than the money.
For being connected to people this warm, I have nothing but gratitude.
Thank you, truly.
Crowdfunding comes up in conversation these days, but in Japanese culture I think everyone still feels some resistance to gathering support from other people — and money at that.
When a friend asked me to back their campaign I gave easily, saying good luck. But once I was on the receiving side, my heart shook for days; it felt heavy and unsettled and I could not bring myself to begin.
I had in fact been thinking about this campaign for six months, and my own weakness and smallness and all sorts of feelings churned about and stopped me starting.
I first had to manage on my own — I put everything from the cancer insurance into it, and it is still not enough.
I increased the part-time jobs to three and four a day and worked without a single day off. (And I will go on doing so.)
After six months of running flat out, what I can manage alone reaches only as far as this June’s mission: going to England to learn the maintenance of the car I will race and to test it.
Looking squarely at that, there is no way this reaches the actual Peking to Paris a year from now. So I decided to accept support honestly, and began the campaign.
Having started — and it is only day one — I have been given real strength by the connections between people, and I have nothing but gratitude.
Being introduced to people I could never have reached alone, having others spread the word, receiving help of every kind: rather than anxiety and conflict, it has given me the resolve to see this through with everything I have.
Thank you, truly.
Going forward, I am working on a system to report closely to supporters each week — how their support is helping this challenge, the accounts, the percentage reached so far, and where the plans stand.
It will take a little time, and I would be grateful for your patience.
I still need your help from here. Thank you for staying with me.
Briefly, then: that is the report from the first day of the campaign.