Kintaro Walks Japan
Encyclopedia
Kintaro Walks Japan is a documentary film
produced and directed by Tyler MacNiven
. It is an account of MacNiven's journey walking and backpacking the entire length of Japan from Kyūshū
to Hokkaidō
, more than 2000 miles in 145 days.
MacNiven cited three reasons for the journey. On his first trip to Japan in 2002, he fell in love with the country. It was on this trip that a friend nicknamed him "Kintaro," which means "Golden Boy," because of his blond hair. Occasionally accompanying him on the trip was his girlfriend, Ayumi Meegan, whose father, George Meegan
, completed the longest unbroken walk in recorded history - a nearly 7 year sojourn from the southern tip of Argentina to the northern tip of Alaska. Inspired by their story, MacNiven conceived of the task after learning that his father, whose parents were foreign missionaries, was born in an unknown location in Hokkaidō
. Armed with a desire to impress Ayumi and find his father's birthplace, as well as an interest in Japanese
culture, MacNiven set sail to Japan
.
With only a drawing of the birthplace to aid him, MacNiven walked the length of Japan with hope of finding his father's birthplace. Along the way, he befriended many Japanese people and learned much about their culture and himself. As well, his time spent in Japan helped him learn a fair amount of Japanese.
Although he completed his task in July 2004, it wasn't until the subsequent year that Kintaro Walks Japan was disseminated on the internet and gained popularity. Unable to find a distributor for the documentary of the trek, MacNiven burned 1,000 DVD
s and began hawking copies of the film on the streets of San Francisco and at a restaurant his father owns. One day, George Strompolos, an executive from the nearby Google
campus, dropped by. “Dad showed the movie to him,” MacNiven said. “He watched it and said, ‘This is exactly what we need.’” Today roughly 500 people watch the film every day at Google Video
.http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2006-02-14/white-googlemoviestars American Airlines also screened the film on international flights for a month.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
produced and directed by Tyler MacNiven
Tyler MacNiven
Tyler MacNiven is an American filmmaker and reality television contestant.-Stanford University Admission Campaign:MacNiven first received attention in 1998 when, while a senior at Woodside High School in Woodside, California, he launched a political-style campaign to supplement his application to...
. It is an account of MacNiven's journey walking and backpacking the entire length of Japan from Kyūshū
Kyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....
to Hokkaidō
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
, more than 2000 miles in 145 days.
MacNiven cited three reasons for the journey. On his first trip to Japan in 2002, he fell in love with the country. It was on this trip that a friend nicknamed him "Kintaro," which means "Golden Boy," because of his blond hair. Occasionally accompanying him on the trip was his girlfriend, Ayumi Meegan, whose father, George Meegan
George Meegan
George Meegan is a British long-distance walker best known for his unbroken walk of the entire Western Hemisphere from the southern tip of South America to the northernmost part of Alaska, in 2,425 days...
, completed the longest unbroken walk in recorded history - a nearly 7 year sojourn from the southern tip of Argentina to the northern tip of Alaska. Inspired by their story, MacNiven conceived of the task after learning that his father, whose parents were foreign missionaries, was born in an unknown location in Hokkaidō
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
. Armed with a desire to impress Ayumi and find his father's birthplace, as well as an interest in Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
culture, MacNiven set sail to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
With only a drawing of the birthplace to aid him, MacNiven walked the length of Japan with hope of finding his father's birthplace. Along the way, he befriended many Japanese people and learned much about their culture and himself. As well, his time spent in Japan helped him learn a fair amount of Japanese.
Although he completed his task in July 2004, it wasn't until the subsequent year that Kintaro Walks Japan was disseminated on the internet and gained popularity. Unable to find a distributor for the documentary of the trek, MacNiven burned 1,000 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s and began hawking copies of the film on the streets of San Francisco and at a restaurant his father owns. One day, George Strompolos, an executive from the nearby Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
campus, dropped by. “Dad showed the movie to him,” MacNiven said. “He watched it and said, ‘This is exactly what we need.’” Today roughly 500 people watch the film every day at Google Video
Google Video
Google Videos is a video search engine, and formerly a free video sharing website, from Google Inc. Before removing user-uploaded content, the service allowed selected videos to be remotely embedded on other websites and provided the necessary HTML code alongside the media, similar to YouTube...
.http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2006-02-14/white-googlemoviestars American Airlines also screened the film on international flights for a month.