Tokyo Tour By Foot

Time: 81:56
Distance: ~10.5 miles

This day was jammed packed with activity and fun. A small portion of the team ate breakfast buffet style at one of the three eating locations in the hotel. I won't bore you with the details today, but after we all returned to our miniature hotel rooms to sort out our day. We've been staying in business hotels where there is not a whole lot to the individual rooms. However we were only able to relax for a few minutes until we were being beckoned downstairs to the lobby. We then walked over to the Shinjuku train station to start our day of sight seeing. Apparently over 10 million people pass through this station every day too. The Tokyo station map also makes the New York City subway system look like the Charlotte rail system.

Everyone thought that we were heading for the Imperial Palace but we later learned that we weren't. Remember with Yoshi leading the way you never really know or understand where the team is heading. We jumped on one train only to soon realize it was going in the wrong direction. We got off and ultimately navigated our way to the destination of Asakusa which is a Buddhist temple and pagoda. At the time we didn't really know where we were and had to figure it out on our own since it definitely wasn't the Imperial Palace. There was a long row of tourist trap shops that led right up to the grounds of the temple.

Entrance to the grounds.

Sight after the tourist shops and approaching the pagoda.

Don't mess with this guy!

Golden spire.

Buddha and Mr. Ben Stern.

Large koi fish willing to eat anything, not that we tried to feed them.

The new Tokyo tower in construction.

We had our fill of of Buddha after a couple of hours and everyone wanted to get back to the hotel in order to meet Brett Larner of Japan Running News. He runs an absolutely fantastic blog about the Japanese running scene which is relatively unknown in the US. He also manages a couple athletes, does translation for Adidas Japan, plays a traditional Japanese instrument, coaches a group of amateur athletes and I'm sure much more. I have followed his blog for a couple of years now and when the opportunity presented itself to meet up I wanted to make it happen.

Zac Hine navigated subway system beautifully and we were back at the hotel around 12:20 pm. The plan was to meet Brett and go on a running tour of the Imperial Palace. It was a perfect way to spend the afternoon by killing two birds with one stone. Everyone was suited up in their running costumes for the jog over to the Palace. Perhaps the best part of the run was picking Brett's brain about Japanese training methods, the university system, the professional corporate teams, the Japanese running market and the running boom that is currently taking place.

Japanese Training Methods: We were told top runners in Japan run 1000 kilometers a month. Do the math. That's 620 miles a month. Do the math. That's 155 miles a week. The Japanese also often train in Tokyo where most of the surface is concrete. We were also shown where I believe it was Toshihiko Seko ran 80 laps of a 1300 meter loop in the middle of the city on a relatively regular basis. That's 100k right there! Seko is also know for his quote, "The marathon is my only girlfriend, I give her everything I have."

The University System: The Japanese collegiate system is much different than the NCAA in terms of the fall racing season. Essentially there are three big ekiden races which are the Izumo Ekiden (the one we just ran), the National University Ekiden and the Hakone Ekiden. They each get progressively longer in distance and prestige. For example, the Hakone Ekiden is held over two days, averages about 20k per leg, and requires 10 runners from each school. There are some legendary stages that Japanese runners take enormous pride in. In fact, most Japanese runners who are good enough to go run for a professional corporate team after high school, opt to go to college just to run in this race. One element of the race that I really like is that there are time limits and penalties to teams that fall too far behind. For instance, when the 5th leg on day one gets the team sash a clock is started and the remaining schools have a set amount of time to hand off. If they don't do so within that time frame, the runner is released wearing a white sash (aka white sash of shame). Brett said that every year there is a runner within 50 meters of being able to hand off the team sash and isn't able to do so. As a result, the team sash isn't able to continue on and the runner is left in tears for his shortcomings. I should also mention that 50 million people watch the Hakone Ekiden and the streets are lined with alumni, bands and entire towns. There really is nothing in the US that compares to this race. Think maybe the World Series Game 7 and NBA Finals Game 7. Combined.

Professional Corporate Teams: I didn't learn too much about the corporate teams, but every big company in Japan operates a professional team. Athletes are paid well to race and win for their company. Recently Arata Fujiwara, an athlete that Brett manages, decided to part ways with his corporate team in order to pursue the international marathon scene. This year Fujiwara won the Ottawa Marathon in 2:09:33 and will toe the line at the NYC Marathon in November. There is a funny story about him buying a computer if he did well. He ended up with much more than that due to his race winnings (ask me about it). His quote post-race is great too when he told the Ottawa Citizen, "When I drove the course earlier, I saw cafes and pubs and thought it would be nice to go in. Now that I've won, I'll have a few drinks." I'm not positive if the athlete runs for a corporate teams, but the guy who placed fourth in the World Junior XC this year lived a few blocks from the hotel in Tokyo where we stayed.

Japanese Running Market and Boom: Everyone in the states knows Asics and Mizuno. But what people don't know is that marathoning is getting much bigger in Japan for amateur runners like you or me. Races within an hour of Tokyo fill up almost immediately. Brett shared that the new Tokyo Marathon has close to 40,000 participants and that gaining entry is very difficult. More and more citizens are catching the running buzz similar to what took place in the US during the 80s. Also, the Japanese are big time consumers of fashion, technology and new products. We visited a running store and got to see some cool shoes that aren't in the US market.

Brett directed the run and brought us to the loop surrounding the Imperial Palace. It's a 5k loop that surrounds a moat which is the most popular running locale in Tokyo. The team did one loop asking questions about the royal family that is basically kept prisoner inside the palace. We were told that one of the princes is a recreational jogger and once he was allowed to run a loop outside the residence at 4:00 am. Individuals in the media still recognized him and snapped a couple photos.

The run was an out and back loop and we returned past the 1964 Olympic Stadium and got to see the Marathon Gate where Abebe Bikila entered to victory. I'm sure that I'm forgetting some of the other highlights of the run, but I did my best. On the way back we dropped in B&D Sports which is a run specialty store like Charlotte Running Co., Run For Your Life, Fleet Feet. They had tons of shoes, all the new apparel, nutrition, running on the tv and more.

Even in Tokyo I wanted to go visit a running store.

The Izumo Ekiden was on loop in the running store to Frank's chagrin. Our lead off man was really the only one who got air time. That little guy in front is Cosmas Ondiba.

Once back at the hotel I cleaned up and met Brett back downstairs for some more exploring. He, Steve, Sam and I went out to purchase some items at the running store, walk around and grab a couple pints at a small locally owned chain restaurant. I didn't catch the name of the joint, but Brett explained that the owner is a big time amateur runner and he started his own corporate team for "B level" athletes. Think of it as your Brooks-Hansons team for Japanese runners. While seated the waiter came up really apologetic and nervous to tell us that there was a two hour time limit for sitting in the booth.

The next stop was needing to get back to the hotel for dinner in one of the hotel restaurants. I invited Brett to stay since two of our team members were absent and there would be plenty of food and drink for all. Yoshi splurged on us and ordered a bunch of sashimi, tempura, rice dishes and pitchers of beer. The tuna at the dinner had to have been the most tender I've ever enjoyed. It literally melted/dissolved in your mouth. Johnny Photogs, Brett and I had a good conversation down at one end of the table that sort of wrapped up the whole international marathoning scene.

After dinner is when things got really out of hand. I will only post the photo below to document the tamest part of the evening when we were asking Brett where the real trouble could be found. We shotgunned Asahi, I had a versus battle with Frank and other guys got iced. We took the subway to the Roppongi district and tried to avoid the Nigerians where only lead you to shady strip joints. The club that we were looking for had closed down, but we asked a couple Irish guys and they told us where to go. When we got to the bar DJ Ibuki was scratching away on the 1s and 2s. He was surprisingly good and a whole rotation of djs followed his performance. The night ended when the old guys of the team (me, Ben and Steve) cabbed it back to the hotel only to find another Japanese guy completely passed out on the tile outside on of the hotel entrances. Nobody was around, just a guy flat on his face similar to the scene last night.

The team and Yoshi listening to Brett on where to go in the Roppongi district of Japan.