Keep Vietnam beautiful: Japanese environmentalist
By Mong Binh in HCMC
|
| Yuji Miyata (L) receives a pot of young rice plants from Vietnamese lasses in HCMC with hopes that Vietnam will remain green and beautiful as these plants are for everyone - Photo: Mong Binh |
Yuji Miyata is planting more trees and meeting more people in Vietnam, particularly the youth, to spread a general message of keeping the country beautiful before he leaves the country early next month.
The Japanese environmentalist brings the message during his last days in Vietnam from the months he walked along the main national highways in the country, from the north to HCMC where he arrived in mid-April.
Miyata said that he had started walking from Hanoi in September of 2009 but had to drop his walking half way when he had to return to his home country in October for medical treatment because of an illness.
However, he returned in January to restart his walking and finally finished his trip as planned. “When I started walking in Vietnam in September, I didn’t expect that I could finish my walk successfully,” Miyata said on his website. “At the beginning, I didn’t know anybody and there was no support. I was full of fears and anxieties on my walking.”
Anxieties did not stop him and, on the contrary, he got more confident step after step. “I continued to walk toward HCMC, and in the course of my walking, step by step I could have a connection with more Vietnamese people, and the circle of my friends became bigger and bigger!”
Miyata said on his website at www.yoyoyuji.spaces.live.com that he had to walk 25-30 kilometers a day during the last two weeks of his trip under the scorching sun. “As I felt being boiled under the heat, I continued to walk, walk and walk!”
Miyata trekked from Hanoi down through Ninh Binh, Dong Ha, Hue, Danang, Hoi An, Quy Nhon, Tuy Hoa, Phan Rang and many other localities on the way to HCMC. “I mainly walked along National Highway 1A and it took me about four months to finish my trip,” Miyata recounted.
Miyata passed over 1,600 kilometers in Vietnam and planted more than 190 trees in many places. On the worldwide front since 2007, he has been able to walk more than 6,700 kilometers and planted over 700 trees in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam to encourage people to protect the environment and keep peace.
Walking is not always easy for Miyata as he sometimes encounters muscular problems, but he manages to overcome these physical pains when receiving great support and smiles from the people he meets during his journeys.
Local people help Miyata by providing him with food, drinks and accommodation to stay overnight as well as by giving him friendly greetings to lift his spirit to move forward when he is tired. This was also the case in Vietnam.
“Walking toward HCMC was a long way to go. The weather was very hot and many times I was nearly discouraged. But Vietnamese people always supported me, encouraged me and then I could walk until I arrived in HCMC,” Miyata said with a smile.
The 27-year-old decided to devote his life to walking six years ago when he, by different means, realized that global pollution had become a matter of great concern, and especially after he learned of earthwalker and United Nations Peace Ambassador Paul Coleman’s missions of keeping the planet green and peaceful three years ago.
“From that time, I realized what I wanted to do,” Miyata said, adding that he had decided to walk around the world after he graduated from Keio University in Tokyo in 2004, and as long as he could to tell people about the need to preserve the planet for everyone.
Miyata said the environment in Vietnam was okay now but needed protecting for the next generations to live. “Vietnam has a great opportunity to keep the environment as they always help each other even in bad situations. So, if they unite their efforts in environmental protection, they will keep their country beautiful.”
After Vietnam, Miyata plans to go to Taiwan and Chile to meet environment activists and join walks with local people to help raise public awareness of keeping the planet green. “I will not stop walking until the world is well preserved in greenery and is a beautiful environment.”
Miyata said he loved Vietnam as the country was beautiful and would come back to meet the smiling people in this country. “Their smiles are my happiness. I love everyone and everyone is my family.”