After five years, the grand challenge of a first Japanese woman has finally seen its starting line come into view.
You can read my thoughts on Peking to Paris here
This challenge didn't begin at the start line — it had already begun five years earlier.
Every kind of hardship, every kind of headwind, kept coming at me, again and again, as if to say “here, try this too” — more than once or twice, I found myself wondering why I'd ever taken this on.
Even so, I've kept driving without giving up, and that's entirely thanks to the huge number of people cheering me on.
The projected cost of the challenge ballooned to nearly three times what I'd planned, and while I was working five part-time jobs at once just to keep going, the idea of “crowdfunding” came to me, and the circle of support spread across the whole country.
By December 2023, the full 5 million yen raised had already been sent off entirely as the rally entry fee, but beyond that, this rally still needed an enormous amount of money — for the warm-up event, for maintaining the challenge car, and more.
Some people happily backed this challenge of asking for support, but I also had the experience of people drifting away, asking why I'd take on a challenge that needed collecting money from others at all.
“Supporting a dream”… I came away with the impression that the culture of “crowdfunding,” of financially supporting something like this, still hasn't fully taken root in Japan.
Once the entry fee was fully paid, the crowdfunding campaign ended, but even then I heard voices that seemed to want to restrict what I did, along the lines of “we supported you, we backed you, so...”
Getting cancer partway through this journey actually helped me let go of something.
I decide my own life, myself
Empty words cost you trustAction earns you trust
Expecting things from others just leaves you frustrated,but expecting things from yourself fills you with excitement
Believe you can't, and that's exactly what happens,believe you can, and the future opens up
Count your complaints, and unhappiness piles up,count your blessings, and happiness is exactly what you get
The path you chose yourself is your lifeBecause your life belongs to no one else but you
That's right!I want to keep running my own life, my own way
Two days after my cancer surgery I was already back in training, and just days after leaving the hospital, I was back to early-morning part-time work.
But… I was completely worn out, day after day, in that state.
That's when a message about a new form of support caught my eye.
A new way of supporting people chasing their dreams…
An age of supporting “quality” over “quantity,” “people” over “things”
Here's the message written there!
There's value in every single bit of it
I want that person to keep doing things their own way — they don't need to post updates constantly, it's fine if it takes time, and even if it never actually reaches a finished output, I want to keep watching the process itself, the activity itself, their way of living, their life itself. I find myself saved just by their existing at all. I want to support them even through the stretches where things aren't going well. I want them to never settle for less than what truly satisfies them. I want them to just stay exactly who they are. I want them to keep chasing their dream. I want them, more than anything, to just keep living. Isn't there someone precious like that in your life, someone who quietly holds your heart steady?
“Doukei” was built to make feelings like that real.
Alright! Let's just try everything there is to try! I don't care what anyone thinks of me.
Give everything I possibly can, and live completely burned through!
My challenge isn't just a motor challenge, plain and simple.
I hope that finding meaning in living, and the act of chasing a dream, can bring hope and courage to even one more person out there.
Through my challenge, won't you open the door to the future together with me?
You can support from as little as 500 yen a month. (About the price of a cup of coffee.)
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You can support here!
I'll keep driving forward — living — with everything I have.