49 Days Til Tokyo

Only 49 days left and I will be running the Tokyo Marathon. It is on February 28th. This will only be my second full marathon so I am still filled with nerves and butterflies. I finished a 22 km (give or take a kilometer) training run this morning/afternoon and it felt great. I was concerned this week with some leg issues. I was feeling some strange pains in the tendons behind my left knee and sometimes while running downhill, it felt as if my knee would give out. Some ibuprofen and some extra rest and today I felt amazing.

Tomorrow I plan on a 10-12 km training run. Monday is "Coming of Age Day" in Japan, which is a National Holiday.

Speaking of running, there was an interesting yearly event held this morning at Nishinomiya Shrine. That is where I went with my family for New Years' prayers.


Some 6,000 men burst through the gates of Nishinomiya Shrine in Hyogo Prefecture and race 230 meters toward the shrine’s main hall at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning with the frontrunners attempting to capture the title of “fuku-otoko” (Lucky Man). The annual ceremony, which has been held since the Edo period, is associated with Ebisu, a god of prosperous business. The first three participants to reach the main gates are considered Japan’s luckiest men for the year. Japantoday


Yesterday I went into Osaka to meet my wife. She had been in there doing some shopping while I was working. I shot a lot of footage for a video I will begin editing later this evening. I was wanting to capture some of the sights in Umeda, a downtown district in Osaka, at night time. I posted a few little videos about some other random things I saw.