I had booked a direct flight to Tokyo to make it easy for myself, and everything was going smooth until I checked into the hotel at the airport the evening before departure. When having to pay I realized I had completely forgotten my PIN for the card I usually use for my trips. Finally managing to overcome that bump on the road the following steps that led me to board the plane the next morning went swimmingly. The 13-hour flight went well – we were maybe half an hour late when leaving but arrived just on time in Tokyo. Thank you to The Creator, MI: Dead Reckoning 1, A Haunting in Venice, Christopher Robin and Raya and the Last Dragon for entertainment along the way (when I wasn’t sleeping).
We were deplaned at what seemed to be the furthest away gate so it took a while to get to immigration and picking up my bag. Waiting for my bag I bumped onto two others doing the same tour so we decided to share a taxi to the hotel. There was no obviously easy way getting there using public transport (and if you haven’t been there before it feels even further away) so taking a taxi seemed like the easiest way to go. I had ordered a SIM-card to pick up outside the arrival hall but it turned out that that booth didn’t open until half an hour after we got there – fortunately it was easy to change the pick-up location, so having changed it to somewhere closer to the hotel we left to grab a taxi.
Reaching the hotel after a 15 minute drive we were informed it was too early to check in as it was only around 10, so we handed over our bags and took the train towards the center – or rather closer to Tokyo station. Getting there we went our separate ways and I tried understanding the layout of the station to figure out where to pick up my SIM card and buy a travel card instead of manually paying for each trip on public transport.
After finally being successful with both my endeavors I had a walk around in the park outside the royal palace and around for a bit before taking the train back to the hotel and relaxed.
Long live jet lag; I was starting nodding at around 1800 and an hour later I gave up the fight and went to bed and immediately passed out. Unfortunately it didn’t last as long as I would have liked so at 0200 I was wide awake. I barely got any more sleep, but at least it meant I got to have breakfast at 0700 wight when the restaurant opened so it wasn’t crowded when I raided the buffet.
Thursday morning I was once again awake early, and at 0544 I noticed some shaking which I first assumed was from someone slamming their door. I quickly realized that a 30-floor building, where I was on the 16th floor, needed more than a slammed door to shake, and for 15-20 seconds we experienced a 5.2 earthquake. Needless to say it left me a bit shaken.
The runner’s expo was a half an hour’s walk from the hotel so around 1000 I went on my way there and ended up spending around an hour picking up my kit and having a look around. Despite arriving a few hours after opening the first day most official merchandise had already been sold out – but apparently the largest size they had had was a Japanese large which meant in any case there would have been nothing that would have been able to fit me anyway.
Afterwards I went to the Ginza district where I went to the old fish market and had sushi for lunch. What a first go at sushi in Japan! The market was packed with small eateries – all of them seemingly high quality. After a bit of walking around I returned to the hotel and in the evening the travel group met with the guides to get information on the following days and a kit with bus tickets to and from the race, official jacket and other small bibs and bobs. The official jacket was apparently something only international runners received and were therefore made using international sizing. But as you ordered using only one size when signing up for the race the XXL runner’s shirt – using Japanese sizing – fit me nicely, whereas the jacket – non-Japanese XXL – was quite loose.
The following day – Friday – I had a walk around Tokyo across the center from Ginza to Shinjuku where I had a lovely bowl of ramen before taking the train back and resting for the evening.
Saturday morning 7 of us from the group did the morning run with a 40-minute train ride both ways. Pickup of the run’s number went fine, and then standing outside in the cold breeze for half an hour to see a ceremony with dancing and music, a bit of warm-up and talking mostly in Japanese. There were 5 starting groups and we were in the last – and with talks and whatnot it took 5 minutes to send off each group. And the 5km route turned out to be 4,7km instead. We should probably have started off with circling the sports field where we started twice instead of the single time we did before heading out on the course. But like with everything else about this it felt pretty chaotic and unorganized, as if it had been an afterthought organized a few weeks ago. To their (slight) defense this was the first time doing this in 5 years so they may have been a bit rusty, but with only 1000 participants it should have been easy compared to tomorrow’s marathon! A single water bottle was handed to you crossing the finish line together with a small medal, and we were soon on our way back to the hotel.
Quick lunch, resting and pasta dinner before being back in the hotel and trying to figure out how to dress for tomorrow’s run. The bus is leaving from the hotel for the start at 0645 so there will be no sleeping in – but with my current jetlag that will likely not be an issue.
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