15th April The Japarathon – マラソン!





Another weekend of glorious sunshine and in fact, I have pretty bad sunburn from spending the day at the Nagano Marathon on Sunday. Saturday was actually spent sunbathing on my balcony and then it was a very early start to get the train through to Nagano on Sunday morning. I managed to get on the wrong shuttle bus once I got to Nagano and so was a tad lost for about 20 minutes but after some severe guesswork and a very kind bus driver I was back on track and arrived at my destination only a little late! I had volunteered with some friends to help at an International Stall set up at the marathon which basically involved a group of us dressing up as “runners” and mingling around the crowds whilst some kids (and adults) had to track us down and guess which country we were from. The idea behind it was to try and break the stereotype that all foreigners look the same to the Japanese (don’t laugh – i’m being serious!!!). The one thing I learnt was that most of the people there didn’t seem to know where Scotland was!



Anyway, I was also there to support a friend I met way back at the Edinburgh orientation before I came to Japan. She had entered to run the marathon and traveled up from Kobe for the occasion. In Japan, they tend to treat marathons very seriously and you have to get past certain check points by a certain time or else you are not allowed to carry on. The maximum time allowed is 5 hours, and after that point the finish line is taken down and the crowds have cleared off home. Liz however did really well and completed her first marathon (in baking heat) in 4 hours and 45 minutes. Kat and I celebrated by having a kebab and a beer, followed by an ice cream… the exact opposite of running a marathon we thought!


Liz - about an hour after the marathon!


The finish line.


Some dancers - there were lots of dancers! No Japanese event is complete without some dancers!

The setting for the marathon was really beautiful and as the cherry blossoms are in full bloom now I was a bit snap happy with the camera.


Sakura in all its glory!