It’s not often that New York City and Santa Monica are linked together in the same sentence. But last Saturday, the two were literally linked by Ryo Murata, a 25-year-old from Numazu, Japan, who rode a bicycle nearly 3,000 miles from Times Square to the Santa Monica Pier.
Mr. Murata united more than just cities as he crossed the country. His intrepid journey through challenging terrain and pouring rain, brought people together across generational, cultural and political divides as they followed his progress on Instagram. He left New York on September 12 with 1,617 followers on Instagram, but when he arrived in Santa Monica on Saturday, he had amassed over 180,000, with close to 500 showing up at the Pier, according to Jeffrey Jarow, the President of Santa Monica Sister City Association.
“We needed this now” said Leticia Barajas, who lives in Hawthorne. She found Mr. Murata’s live video streams to be an inspiring antidote to post-election polarization. “With everybody being very divided, this brings out how amazing we are when we come together as a community.”
The upbeat videos documented each day of Mr. Murata’s expedition. Traveling alone with very limited English, this courteous young man with a teenager’s physique was truly dependent on the kindness of strangers, and the extraordinary part is how often he received it. A homeless man in New Jersey offered him insect repellant. A police officer in Ohio found him a free motel room. Truck drivers offered water, and passersby invited him home for meals in red states and blue. He repeatedly asked people why they were helping him, and frequently the answer was “Why not?”
Vuochhy Lao, who lives in Fontana, invited him to spend the recent holiday with her family. “As a mom of four, I'm thinking, gosh, he’s here alone and who is he gonna spend time with on Thanksgiving?” she said.
Ms. Lao has become a key part of a community of supporters who graduated from passively following to actively assisting the latter part of Mr. Murata’s ride, escorting him along treacherous California highways and arranging for meals, hotel rooms, and even a trip to Disneyland.
“We are tired of the negative stereotypes of Americans,” said Ms. Lao, who credits Mr. Murata with bringing people together “no matter where we all came from or how different we look.”
During a short ceremony, Mr. Jarow presented Mr. Murata with a Certificate of Completion for his trek and informed the crowd that Mr. Murata is from the same prefecture as Santa Monica’s sister city, Fujinomiya, where 35 Samohi students are traveling in April to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the relationship.
The Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles was among those in attendance, as was Declan Henson, 13, from Huntington Beach, with a handmade sign expressing his admiration for Mr. Murata’s accomplishment.
“If he had the dedication to bike across the country then I can have the dedication to do stuff in my life,” he said.
A grateful Mr. Murata seemed both exhausted and exhilarated. He had suffered through broken spokes, broken brakes, and occasionally broken spirits, but he said that the support he received is what motivated him to keep going.
He had previously taken a similar ride in Japan and written a book about it. But the distance from New York to Santa Monica was significantly greater, and he only had a three-month visa. “I felt a lot of pressure to reach the finish within that time, and anxiety if I couldn’t,” he said.
However, he realized that feeling anxious wasn’t going to improve the outcome, which was a crucial lesson, he said, “I learned that it is more fun to turn anxiety into excitement and go on a journey.”
Devan Sipher
