The Japan Years: August 2007: Japan Photo Blog (Yokosuka, Japan)

World Wide Half Marathon

A man's wife and young child just left Yokosuka to visit family in the States for a few weeks, so what does the guy do? He signs up for a half marathon.

Yup. I just registered for the 2nd Annual Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon, to be held on or around the weekend of 13-14 October 2007. As Nicki mentioned in the last post, we've really taken a likin' to Steve Runner's weekly podcast called Phedippidations. I've enjoyed listening during my workouts so much that I've found myself just jogging for ridiculous numbers of miles without even knowing it. With Nicki and Josh away, I figured that I needed something to do to occupy my time and keep me out of trouble, so I'll be training for a 13.1 mile (or 21.1 kilometer, as they measure here in Japan) run around the Miura Peninsula.

This race is fairly unusual, since it's being undertaken by folks from all over the world at various times in all kinds of different locations. It's completely free to register (at http://www.worldwidehalf.com/), you can choose your own path, and you can choose to raise money for whatever charity strikes your fancy.

Most of you don't know, but the reason Nicki and Josh are heading back to the States is to be with family following a death in the family. Nicki's grandmother, Marcia, passed away last month. Nicki's pretty private about such things and to be honest, I'm not sure how much (if anything) she wants me to say about it, but I've decided to dedicate the run to Marcia's memory. As such, I've found a charity that I think she would have been proud to support. In the little time that I had the privilege of knowing her, I learned that Marcia had a big heart and cared deeply for children. As such, I've decided to start a donation campaign for the Hole In The Wall Camps, which you can read about by clicking through the link in the organization's name. I'm going to start the campaigning by pledging $50 from our own bank account.

If you're interested in contributing, please consider doing so. You have my word that 100% of all donations will go to the Hole In The Wall Camps and I'll try to get a receipt from them to post online as a thanks to all contributors. I'm planning to keep a running total of contributions and a list of supporter's names (unless you'd prefer to remain anonymous). Thanks in advance for everyone's support, be it financially or by cheering me on.

Wish me luck!

Update: I set up a separate blog to track my experiences and stories from training and to keep a running total of contributions for the Hole In The Wall Camps charity. Check it out at: http://japanyearsrunning.blogspot.com.

Getting the Positive Back

This blog is a little bit of a hodge podge of many things. In the end it all tends to have the same theme though.

This weekend we tried to cram in as much fun as we could. Friday night some neighborhood friends invited us to a local beach bar that really reminded me of home. Totally relaxed fun place.

Saturday, we invited a friend over with her children. She had been gone all Summer and just got home. I wanted to make sure I had a chance to see them before I took off.

Sunday was the "creme de la creme". Pete, a friend of ours who we met through SushiJeff, was generous enough to give us tickets to a fantastic show in Tokyo. The show condensed many of the matsuri dances and entertainment throughout Japan and parts of Asia. Mike will give a more thorough blog post later on about this fabulous experience. It was the perfect show to end Summer.

The Japanese culture never ceases to amaze me at times. There is a stoplight just outside of our house. This morning we heard several honks outside and decided to peak out our window. We noticed there was a car stopped at the traffic light. The light was green and the car had it's turning signal on but wasn't going anywhere. The car ended up staying there over a cycle of 3 light changes. Drivers would honk and then drive past glaring at whoever was inside. Finally, someone got out of the car and knocked on the window. Apparently the driver had fallen asleep at the light! Mind you there were probably ten to twenty pedestrians passing the car while the action was taking place and doing nothing. Just went on pretending not to notice. The only reason why we didn't run down there was because it would have been over by the time we made it to the corner stoplight.

Today on the train, Mike got up from his seat to allow a grandmother and her grandson to sit in his place. Instead, the father ended up taking the seat with the child while the grandmother continued to stand. To Mike, this is just unheard of. Elderly, women, and/or children should always get the seat before a healthy young adult male does, in his (and my) opinion. I just recently heard a story from a friend of ours here in Japan. She was 7 months pregnant carrying a pre-schooler and stroller around in Tokyo on her way home on a crowded train. She was so exhausted she finally just plopped down on the floor. Still not one person got up to give her a seat. They just all gawked at the "crazy foreigner" sitting on the dirty floor.

Another experience recently occurred while we were at Disneyland during Obon week. Yes, we were stupid enough to go during Obon week and record-breaking temperatures. It was fun and my brother was able to see Tokyo Disney. However, we've learned our lesson and will never go during a holiday week! While we were at the park, there was a little girl about 6-7 years old screaming and crying. She was obviously lost. Again, not one person was doing a thing to help this poor girl. Mike flagged down a park employee to help the girl. He knew that if he went up to her himself, he'd scare her even more. But once the park attendant figured out what Mike was trying to say, she was more than happy to help the child.

Many may read this and think negatively about my interpretation of our current experiences here. Maybe readers can sense a little irritation in my writing style lately...Just recently, I've been getting a little tired of being looked at like a zoo animal at times and people moving away from us on trains and children jumping away from my son like he has the plague (and watching as he gets taunted in Japanese by the children at the playground). It does get old at times. I suppose I just have to keep on telling myself, "it's just a different culture". Some days, I can just be too sensitive.

I will say though, the day couldn't have ended better. We got back to Yokosuka from Tokyo just in time to eat at our favorite sushi joint for dinner.

In other news, I will be headed to the States come Wednesday to visit family for 3 weeks. I think this visit will help me recharge a bit as well. I am feeling a little homesick. Mike will be staying here all alone... plenty of time for him to get into some trouble while I'm away! When I return it will be October in Japan and I should be back just in time to flag down the Yaki-imo vendor.

With the Summer months in full swing, I've been slacking with my jogs. If there is a new excuse, I've got one. The Summer was slow to start here after a late rainy season. I was running to base (between 4-6 kilometers) every other day. The heat kicked in and my feet starting getting a bunch of blisters. So for a while, I was a gym rat. Being in the "rat race" for a while slowed me down and dried up my motivation. With my brother in town, I didn't go because well, honestly, I was worn out from taking trips everywhere. All of this slacking caused me to get into a sluggish mood as well. I decided I need a new game plan to get me motivated. I picked up Runner's magazine. Although most of the articles in Runner's magazine target more hard core runners, the magazine always seems to motivate me to push just a little harder.

Near the beginning of the publication, there was a small blurb about a podcaster who broadcasts a show for free exclusively for runners. It was such a positive editorial that it sparked my curiosity. After giving Phedippidations a listen, I have to say many of his experiences and stories from his listeners has inspired me to push myself just a little bit further on my runs. I highly recommend him to anyone out there who wants to start running but just hasn't been able to get up and start. He's free to download onto your iPod.

Mike's note: If you have iTunes downloaded to your computer, and you should, do a power search in the iTunes Store for the podcast "Phedippidations", or you can get to his podcasts like we initially did by starting out at his website by clicking the link above in Nicki's post. He's great to listen to on a short or long run to keep you motivated, informed, and educated. I just got back from a evening 10k jog and listened to him through the entire route.

Tokyo, Day 1

We wanted to provide Nicki's brother, David, some cool only-in-Japan experience during his limited tour over here, so we booked some rooms up in Tokyo and had a mini-vacation. And over the past few days, we tore through Tokyo like Godzilla on a rampage.

We arrived on Sunday morning and had a few hours to kill before our rooms would be ready, so we stowed our luggage at the check-in counter and hopped the train for Harajuku. Perfect timing. Sunday is the day when the colorful "Harajuku girls" are generally decked out in their unique outfits and decorations. I was actually really surprised to see so many of the kids out at play. Although it was a sunny day, the heat was excruciating and some of those costumes look uncomfortable even in normal weather. We did the tourist thing of standing around a looking, got a few pictures, and then hit the tracks down to Shibuya.

In Shibuya, we got the standard gratuitous picture of David with the statue of Hachiko, the legendary loyal dog of ancient lore. Afterwards, we crossed the busiest intersection in the world a couple times. The great thing about this week is that it's Obon week, so many Tokyoites were away from Tokyo, which made the intersection a little less crowded.

We finally got to a point where we couldn't stand the heat anymore, so we headed back to the hotel, checked in, threw on our swimsuits and hit the pool to cool off. That's Day 1 in a nutshell. Day 2-4 will be up soon. In the meantime, our pictures from Day 1 are up in the Gallery and dated 08/17/2007.

Big Sis, Little Bro, Great Buddha

There's not too many things that I can claim dominance at over Nicki, but one thing that I generally hold as truth is that I'm a better photographer. Then she goes to Kamakura and has a day like today.

Nicki's brother, David, is in town visiting. I had separate plans today with Josh to visit Sarushima ("Monkey Island") with a few other guys, so Nicki took the opportunity to have a sister/brother day and they hit the tracks to Kamakura to visit the beautiful Hase area. During their early morning adventure, they were able to catch both the Great Buddha (Daibutsu) and Hase-Dera, which to me is one of the quintessential temples of Japan - though I'm admittedly no expert on such matters.

Nicki took the camera with her today, so I'll have to rely on other guys in my group for pictures from Monkey Island, but Nicki was able to take some really great shots of David during their adventure in Japan's former capital. There's a few up now on the Gallery page dated 08/11/2007.

Next on the David Does Japan tour, a visit to Japan's current capital, Tokyo. Stay tuned...

Bon Odori Season 2007

Last year, we had a blast at the neighborhood's annual Bon Odori (basically, "street festival"). This year, we found out about the festivals far enough in advance to see two of the three festivals, at 1-chome ("block") and 2-chome, both within easy walking distance from our house.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so below are a few thousand things we saw during the festivities. Our Gallery dated 08/06/2007 shows the rest.