I became unemployed, so I decided to walk 700km. [Part 2]

It has been over a month and a half since I quit the design firm where I worked for two and a half years and officially became unemployed. I spent most of that time walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in Spain.

The route I walked is an 800km path called the Camino Frances (French Way), which crosses France and Spain, heading toward the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. I walked the first 100km during my summer vacation last year, so this time I walked the remaining 700km. It is said that medieval Christians once walked this path while praying, but today, people from all over the world walk this pilgrimage route regardless of their faith.

Carrying a pilgrim's passport called a Credencial is one of the rules of this journey. You get stamps at churches, bars, and albergues (pilgrim hostels) along the way. When pilgrims arrive at the final destination, Santiago, they present their Credencial and receive a pilgrimage certificate called a Compostela. According to the Oficina del Peregrino, in 2024, the number of Compostelas issued reached a record high of 499,000.

So, on July 17, 2025, at around 2:00 PM, my partner Pierre and I arrived at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and had our Compostelas issued.

From Pamplona to Santiago, I just kept walking for 26 days with a single-minded focus. Given that my body still hasn't recovered from the fatigue even after several days, I think my physical strength had long since reached its limit before the finish line, and toward the end, I was moving my legs almost entirely on adrenaline. It was a 26-day journey that was quite demanding both physically and mentally, but I felt from the bottom of my heart that I was glad I took on the challenge, so I decided to write down and record the experience.

However, even as I write this, I don't think I can properly put my experience of walking so recklessly into words just yet. I feel that the meaning of what I experienced over these 26 days is something that will gradually be understood and find its words as my own life stage changes in the future. For now, I have a feeling that the moments of clarity will come whenever they are needed.

You decide the distance you walk

While there is a sort of standard route that many pilgrims follow, basically, you are the one who decides how many kilometers to walk each day. You plan your own itinerary while considering how many days you can dedicate to this trip, where you are starting from, how far you want to go, how much you are physically capable of walking in a day, whether there is an albergue in that town, and what your budget is.

From my observations, the average distance pilgrims walk in a day is roughly 18km to 24km. If your schedule allows, you can stop at 10km a day, or if your schedule is tight, you can walk about 30km a day.

Since our time was limited, we walked an average of about 28km to 30km. For reference, our actual itinerary looked something like this. (My feet start to hurt just looking back at it.)

On the night of the 7th day, it became clear that "at this pace, we won't reach Santiago by the deadline," so we hurriedly reworked the entire itinerary. The next day, driven by the desire to reach Burgos, we walked nearly 40km in the sweltering heat.

Admittedly, there was a certain sense of accomplishment at the end of that day. But on the other hand, because we pushed ourselves too hard, Pierre hurt his left ankle, and for the next two days, he couldn't walk properly and had to drag his foot to reach our destination. From that day on, my feet became severely swollen, and I had to deal with a nasty, throbbing pain in the soles of my feet until I arrived in Santiago.

If you focus only on consuming distance with the sole desire to reach the finish line, you have absolutely no room to enjoy the beautiful scenery, and even small conversations with other pilgrims become a chore. You arrive at the albergue in a state of near-death exhaustion, so there is no energy left to enjoy the evening. That was always a shame.

When you think about it, this is common in modern society as well. When you pack your schedule too full and get swallowed up by busyness, you lose sight of what is truly important. It is certainly important to dare to step out of your comfort zone, and there are times when pushing yourself leads to a sense of accomplishment and confidence. But in the end, you are the one who decides whether it is "painful or enjoyable." Having the resolve to proceed at a stride and pace that suits you is what determines everything.

There are many people who say that walking the Camino changed their lives. But, if your life did change after walking the Camino, it was not the power of the Camino, but a change you brought about with your own will. I wanted to make sure I didn't forget that nuance.

In a world moving at 4.5km per hour

On this journey, coincidences like staying at the same inn on the same day or passing each other on the road overlapped, and I was able to get to know some wonderful pilgrims.Sometimes I would casually strike up a conversation, and other times they would approach me. There were people I passed by once, only to cross paths with them again after a while. Even without exchanging many words, I felt a mysterious connection with some in an instant. On the other hand, there were people I passed many times but never ended up speaking to. In this exquisite and slightly delicate atmosphere, I felt a sense of humanity and serendipity.

The reasons people walk the Camino are truly diverse. It seems that even today, half of the people walk with religious faith. Some walk to re-examine themselves during a turning point in their lives. Some walk to experience the rich nature of Spain, while others enjoy hiking as a sport.

When talking to other pilgrims, it is clear that this Camino is essentially different from a trip aimed merely at sightseeing.

Michael, a Swiss police officer, was walking this path because, after many years of service, he wanted to re-examine himself after becoming distrustful of people, and hoped to learn how to open his heart to others once again.

Brooke, an American data scientist, was walking this path—which she had walked 20 years ago with her ex-husband—this time with her 13 and 16-year-old sons. She said that for her, this Camino was a path to patiently savor the emotions that gradually well up, such as sadness and anger, while watching the slowly changing scenery.

Marco, a Dutch former restaurant owner, was walking to change his past of falling into alcoholism and working incessantly without regard for his family.“I want to become a better person for my wife and children,” he told me with tears in his eyes. I told him, “Just by thinking that, Marco, I think you are already a good person.”

Some start walking with a clear motive, while others find meaning as they walk. It is up to each person to decide which is correct. In any case, in a world moving at 4.5km per hour, you become sensitive to coincidences that you might overlook in daily life, so space is created to find your own meaning in them. I sometimes think that this very space might be the catalyst for finding your true self.

The ritual of letting go of a stone

As for the reason why Pierre and I decided to walk El Camino, it was because we both became unemployed at the same time and had a block of time off. We only thought, “Let’s do something a bit physically and mentally tough. If we do that, won’t our heads become empty, our thinking become clear, and a new perspective on life emerge?”

However, the more I walked, the less I understood what it meant to empty my head. While moving my feet, my head was constantly thinking about something. Sometimes philosophical things, but mostly super trivial delusions, pointless regrets, or what to have for dinner.

In the midst of that, I arrived at a place called Cruz de Ferro (Iron Cross). This is a long, thin monument located at the highest point of the Camino, with an iron cross standing atop a wooden pillar, and it is considered a place for a ritual where pilgrims leave behind stones, photos, letters, etc., to symbolically “let go” of the worries and past they carry.

If emptying oneself means letting go of one’s burdens, then in the end, even after walking 700km, I wasn’t able to let go of much. If I felt pain or fatigue somewhere in my body, I would still get in a bad mood, and if I saw someone else’s behavior that I didn’t like, I would get incredibly irritated. When the end of the day came into sight, I would inevitably rush, losing the leeway to look at the scenery. Looking back, there were quite a few days when I couldn’t purely enjoy walking.

“Blessed are you, pilgrim”

At a church in the town of Estella, I found a prayer for pilgrims.

I encountered this prayer text on the second day after leaving Pamplona, so it was in the very early stages of this journey. I thought it was a somewhat wonderful text, so I took a photo of it with my smartphone for the time being, but I didn’t look back at it for a while after that. As I neared the end of the journey and my physical strength had reached its limit, I happened to see this text again while looking through my camera roll.

I am by no means a Christian, but if I were to put words to the feeling I had then, it would be “saved.” I remember a sense of relief that was impossible to describe.

To help someone within the scope of what I can do.
To turn my eyes and heart toward beautiful scenery.
To move forward at the same pace as others, without rushing.
To find meaning not in reaching the goal, but in the journey itself.

Reading them back, these are all values I have held dear myself. When I am in a difficult situation, both physically and mentally, and I lose my composure, I easily forget them.Perhaps the sense of relief was because I was reminded of those values once again.

In the past, I also had faint expectations that perhaps my outlook on life might change on the Camino, or that some dramatic transformation might occur. There were times when I wondered how I would bring back what I absorbed on this journey into my daily life. That would be the challenge, I thought.

But now that I have finished walking 700km, if asked, “What changed before and after walking the Camino?” I think I would honestly be at a loss for an answer. That is because, other than the aches all over my body and the fact that I lost fat and gained muscle in my legs, there hasn't been any particular change.

Since I was going to be in Spain for nearly a month, I had a slight expectation that I might be able to speak a little Spanish, but reality is not that sweet. The only Spanish I became able to say was “Dos huevos por favor (two eggs, please),” which is quite an indescribable level of improvement.

Life during the Camino is radically different from my daily life in Paris, and it feels like a complete break from my everyday life. In such an environment, which was in a sense reset, I faced my own thoughts and thought about how I wanted to change my life. in the first place.

Well, there are countless things I want to fix, like getting grumpy when I'm stressed or getting annoyed with others. But if asked whether those are things I want to change about my entire life, the answer is no.

In modern consumer society, we inevitably focus only on things like “what is missing” or “how things should be more like this.” Without realizing it, we are swallowed by a sense of deficiency, and what we already possess begins to look faded.

Therefore, if there was no change after walking 700km, then that is fine. That is what I think. Because, all things considered, I am very satisfied with my life. I am surrounded by people I love, I am loved by people who are important to me, and I am full of happiness.

I think this Camino was a journey to be grateful for that. That is the only conclusion that currently makes sense to me.