Tokyo Marathon 2011 and Joseph Tame

Tokyo Marathon 2011 has come and gone. I was awake early this morning and ready to watch with a fresh pot of coffee brewed. It was a sunny and warm day in Tokyo. The runners were lucky to have such wonderful weather. The previous two years at the Tokyo Marathon, the conditions were wet and very cold.

The men’s race was won by Hailu Mekonnen of Ethiopia and the women’s race by Tatiana Aryasova of Russia.

The coolest story of the day for me was that of Joseph Tame. He is a Tokyo based Englishmen who was covering the race live via UStream, Runkeeper and some other means. He had created a device he dubbed the “iRun” using four iPhones, an Android handset and an iPad. He was ran the entire marathon carrying his contraption and interviewing people along the way.


here is a story about TameGoesWild, Joseph Tame in one of the biggest tech blogs out there, Engadget.

Joseph was also covered by CNN and many other news organizations. He fit the novelty/tech story bill!

I met Joseph in person very briefly last year while I was running the Tokyo Marathon. He then had an iPhone 3GS strapped to a headband. I ran over and chatted with him. Later over twitter, I learned that while we chatted, his audio was actually set to mute!


Here is Joseph on Japanese TV:


here is Joseph Tame's Tokyo Marathon 2011 site.

A Week in Kobe

The week has come to an end and I'm relaxing at home enjoying the quiet life with my family. I tend to sit down and write my blogs or edit my vlogs once my son has gone to sleep for the night and the house is a little more mellow.

During the past week i've taken and posted many pictures to my Twitter. These are just a few I took with my iPhone.


I took this picture on Thursday evening on my way home from work. This was taken close to Kobe City Hall in Sannomiya.


I took this picture on Friday morning on my way to work in the morning. I got of the train close to my school and instead of walking along the main road, decided to zig zag through some smaller back streets (always more interesting in Japan).


A Korean restaurant in Sannomiya in Kobe, Japan. I ate at this place last year with my wife. The food was fairly decent as was the decor. The price was pretty high though!


I saw Tom and Jerry painted on an old wall close to an auto repair shop in Kobe earlier in the week.


I have worked a part time job on Saturdays for the past two years. This is a scene from JR Sannomiya Station platform this morning (Saturday) at 8:40ish in the morning.


Last night (Friday) I took a little time after work to wander around Sannomiya in downtown Kobe to capture some of the sights and sounds. I put together a video last night about what the city (at least this part) looks like on a Friday evening as people head home from work or head out for the night.

Friday Evening in Japan:


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Running Tokyo 東京マラソン2011

In just two days, tens of thousands of runners will hit the streets of Tokyo, Japan to take part in one of the world's biggest marathons. Tokyo Marathon 2011 is slated to be one of the biggest and best marathons in the world. This year, I won't be on the streets of Tokyo with 29,999 other runners. I'll be at home, in Kobe, Japan, watching it on television and I'll be filled with nostalgia.

Just one year ago today, I was in Tokyo and arriving back at my hotel in Shinjuku, near the marathon start line, after a fun and exciting day at the Tokyo Marathon race expo.

Tokyo Marathon 2010 wasn't my first full marathon, but it was my first major international one. Previous to that race I had only run a small community marathon on Osaka with about 2000 runners. It was along a river with no people there to watch and cheer the runners on. It was quiet, a little boring and basically, runner vs. the road.

What I experienced in Tokyo a year ago this weekend was a completely different beast from my first marathon. It WAS completely different and completely wonderful!

The fact that my trip to Tokyo was my first solo voyage to Japan's biggest city was fun. The fact that I had taken a few days off from work to go there was also fun. The energy that filled the city around race weekend was by far the most exciting aspect of the weekend! Runner tourists from around the world had descended on the downtown of Tokyo to enjoy the exciting culture, great food, dynamic sights and then top it all off by running a full marathon on Sunday morning.

The marathon started off on a very rainy and cold Sunday morning. To be honest, getting ready, lining up and waiting to start running was a miserable and cold experience. By the last 15 kilometers though, aside from the pain, I was having the time of my life. The fans cheered us runners on and the sun came out to shine brightly.

Sadly, I reapplied to run in Tokyo Marathon 2011, but wasn't given a spot. I will be watching it on television on Sunday morning like so many other folks across Japan. The coffee will be flowing in my kitchen and my family will gather around the TV. My son will get to watch his first marathon. My wife brought him to the last half marathon I ran, but he slept the whole time!

I did apply this month to run in the first ever Osaka Marathon this October. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that I get a spot in that one!

Here are some video blogs I made during last year's race. I filmed while I was running!




Follow me on Twitter: @jlandkev

Feels Like Spring in Japan

Spring is just around the corner here in Japan. At least that’s what the stores and shops are telling me! Spring themed products are all over the place. Starbucks Japan has now filled its shelves with Sakura themed cups, tumblers, snacks and drinks and many shops are getting ready for Hina Matsuri 雛祭り (Girl’s Day) and Kodomo no Hi (Children’s/Boy’s Day).

Another telltale sign of the approach of a warmer time is the appearance of “ume” or plum blossoms on the trees. In just a few more weeks the “sakura” or cherry blossoms will start to appear and that is always a great time to start the spring party!
Of course, spring is a time of change everywhere. It is a time for new things and a time for the world to be refreshed. I’m looking forward to the warmer weather and celebrating my first “Hanami” or cherry blossom party with my son.

I thought I’d show you wonderful folks some fun pictures from today, a beautiful day in and around Kobe. It was great day to be in Japan.


Hina Matsuri 雛祭り (Girl's Day) in Japan is just around the corner. Families buy beautiful and expensive displays of dolls to celebrate having a daughter.


Plum blossoms in a local park.


More great plum blossoms in a local park.


A very creative and silly student of mine wrote this on the white board at lunch today. I liked it! I'm a home room teacher from Monday to Friday, but I have a part time ESL job on Saturdays. It's a lot of fun teaching these kids!


I saw a unicycle locked up outside of my apartment today and just thought it an odd sight. I never saw children driving unicycles growing up in Canada. I see it all the time here in Japan. It's like an entire generation with dreams of someday going to clown school!


I was at Toys R' Us this afternoon buying some fun toys for my little son when I saw the display for Hinamatsuri dolls. Check out a little video I made with my iPhone about it:



I also wanted to share a new Japan oriented site with you folks. A friend and fellow Starbucks fan has created a blog dedicated to all things “Starbucks in Japan.” Check it out here. It is a new site and your comments and encouragement will keep a good thing going!

Is the Expat Life a Lonely One?

Today was a great day. Although I have a cold, as do my wife and son, I felt great in other ways. I heard some great news with regards to work this week and am looking forward to a much happier year than last!

I was also happy because of a very touching blog post written by a dear friend who lives in Canada. My friend Lonnie wrote about a group of friends who were thicker than thieves back in the mid 1990’s.

There were a group of us who in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada who were as tight as any group of amigos could ever be. We based ourselves out of a local 24-hour coffee shop and shared more wonderful moments than one could count. Lonnie wrote about our group of wonderful friends and also of our team member who was so suddenly and tragically taken away from us at the young age of twenty-four years. I actually cried when I read his post.

Lonnie’s post got me thinking about friendship. Friendship is something we value so much and I think has been harder for me to find over my many years of life abroad. Correction! No, it hasn’t been hard to find. Good friends have been easy to find in my almost nine years of living outside of Canada. The difficult part is holding on to those friends in an expat world that sees people come and people go.

I lived in South Korea for more than five years and a now approaching three years here in Japan. I can’t speak for other countries, but I’ll at least share my experiences and feelings about living in these two places.

During my years in Korea, the expat community seemed to be fairly close. I first lived in a small suburb of Seoul and there weren’t many foreigners there at all. The few of us that spent time together really enjoyed our experiences in a new country. I think I was drawn closer to these people than friends I had back in Canada because of the fact that we were something familiar and comfortable in a foreign land. For two years that I lived in Ilsan (the city outside of Seoul), I had some amazing friends, but then I moved into Seoul.


With some amazing friends hanging out in Ilsan, Korea (2002)


While in Seoul, I met another amazing group of guys who were my coworkers at a large school called Pagoda. They were guys from Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United States. We worked together, drank together, played together and sometimes got into fights together! These guys would have done anything for me and vice versa. I loaned them large amounts of money and they did for me as well. We had each other’s backs in bars fights when rowdy American soldiers wanted to tussle with English teachers and we simply enjoyed quiet nights of watching DVDs together. They were amazing friends. Then I left Seoul. Eventually they all moved away as well.


My amazing group of coworkers and friends I had while living in downtown Seoul in 2004.


I then made my way to Busan, the southern port city in South Korea. I loved Busan. It was far more laid back than Seoul and the people seemed a little more foreigner friendly.

While in Busan I met another great group of people. I lived in a neighborhood in Haeundae called Jangsan that was riddled with foreigners. I loved it there. I even met my wife there. I became involved in music again for the first time since I was spending time with Lonnie and my friends back in that Cape Breton coffee shop. I was playing in bands, open mikes and generally enjoying life. I had a few amazing friends who, again, I will never forget. Then, as normally happens, we all left Korea. We left at different times, but we all left and went our ways. Friends I will never forget but had to say good-bye to.


My great friend Tom just after we ran the Terry Fox Run in Busan, Korea in 2007.


Life abroad, or at least the life I have led abroad is very different than if I had stayed in Canada. If I had stayed in Canada and settled, I would see the same people and have the same neighbors for years and years. I would work with the same people, see the same folks at the same hangouts. I would probably have friends that I would always see on a regular basis.

That simply hasn’t been the case for me as an expat. Most people don’t move to Asia for the rest of their lives. Most people come here for one year. Some even stay for two or three, but long-term folks aren’t so common. I have met many more here in Japan than in Korea, but nonetheless, Asia is a very fluid place where people come and go. Friendships are like that as well in my experience. Friends come and friends go. Eventually you sort of get used to it and harden yourself to the reality, but every once in awhile, it can weigh upon you and make you feel a little sad.

I’ve made so many wonderful and life long friends during my time in Asia. Luckily, with social media, I can keep in contact with these folks, but chatting on Twitter of Facebook isn’t as satisfying as stopping by their house for a Saturday afternoon BBQ. It’s not as fun as meeting at the pub for a beer or coffee shop for a latte.

Now of course, this may not be the experience for everyone who decides to make their way to Asia, but it has been for me, and many others I know.

Don’t get me wrong; life in Japan is wonderful. I really do like it here. The culture, history, food and people are great. Sometimes though, I feel a little lonely. I have an amazing and compassionate wife, a beautiful and silly son and a loving family back in Canada. I have friends here in Japan as well, but I often feel like something is missing.

I suppose this all comes back to my friend Lonnie’s post. His post got me thinking about those wonderful friends I had back in Cape Breton (who have all moved on to other parts of Canada). It then got me thinking about all the wonderful friends I have met and then had to say goodbye to during my many years in Korea and Japan.

The expat life is one filled with adventure and often the mundane. It is colorful and interesting. It is always blog and vlog-worthy as well as challenging. It can also at times be a little lonely (At least in my opinion).


You can follow me on Twitter: @jlandkev

Also, check out my friend Lonnie’s blog.

Asia Tube

Ok, here's the deal. Most of you know that I am a fairly "well known" You Tube video blogger. I now have more than 19,000 subscribers combined on my two channels. i spend a lot of time on You Tube (not so much these days with a busy work schedule) and I spend a lot of time interacting with and meeting other You Tube video bloggers.

My good friend Johnathan, aka "reynoldsair" on You Tube just stared a new series of videos called "Asia Tube." These are a hilarious "analysis" of videos by other You Tubers in Asia. His first two videos are awesome. The first was great. the second even better!

Here they are:

Osaka Marathon Time 大阪マラソン2011

This blog has three basic themes, life as an educator, living in Japan and running. Today’s post is a mix of running and life in Japan.

All right, today the registration for the 1st Osaka Marathon 大阪マラソン opened. It was supposed to start at 10am this morning, but then got bumped up to 11am. Similar to the Tokyo Marathon, registration will be open for one month and it will be a lottery. If you are interested in running in the Kansai Region’s first major international marathon you apply and then sit back with your fingers crossed. At some point in late April they will announce the lucky 28,000 folks who get to run the full marathon.

I’m really hoping I get selected after last fall’s disappointment with the Tokyo Marathon 東京マラソン. I was selected in 2009 to run the 2010 Tokyo Marathon. That run was the time of my life. I was so happy to have done it and I applied to run in this year’s as well. Unfortunately I didn’t make the cut. Although many other folks I know were selected to run again, I wasn’t. To be honest, I think people who apply from outside of Japan have a far better chance (if not guaranteed) to be selected in the race (Tokyo Marathon) than those applying from within Japan!

Last fall, when I ran the Osaka Yodogawa Marathon I ran a sub 4-hour marathon. I have to admit that I trained well for the race, but was a little lazy and could have trained much harder. For the Osaka Marathon I put my “hoped” time as 3hrs 45mins. I think this time will be completely achievable if I add more tempo runs and more sprint training.

The Tokyo Marathon has a relatively short history, but has brought a great deal of attention to the city of Tokyo as well as a huge infusion of money into the Tokyo economy. I suppose Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto are looking for the same financial windfall! That’s why 2011 will see the first Osaka Marathon on October 30, the first Kobe Marathon will be at some point in November and Kyoto will have their first full marathon sometime in early 2012.

It’s shaping up to be a fun running year in this part of Japan!

On a side note, I was really surprised by the most recent poll I placed on my blog. I asked readers to vote on the Japanese city they would most likely want to visit. The results:

Sapporo 28%
Tokyo 21%
Kobe 14%
Osaka 14%
Kyoto 14%
Fukuoka: 8%

That’s right. Most people who voted wanted to see Sapporo. I haven’t been there yet, but I hope I get the chance.

Half Marathon in Kobe 2011神戸バレンタインラブラン

It is the day before Valentines here in Japan. The day before women around the country must give chocolate and gifts to their boyfriends, husbands or special someone’s. That’s right. In Japan, Valentines is a one-sided affair. Men have to give their gifts and whatnot a month later on March 14th, aka, White Day!

In Kobe, the Sunday before Valentines Day is when thousands of people descend upon Port Island for the Kobe Valentines Day Love Run (Half Marathon) 2011神戸バレンタインラブラン．

This is my third year in Japan and I have run this half marathon my first two years here. I intended to run again this year, but like with the Kakagawa Marathon late last year, registration filled up much faster than expected and I didn’t get a spot (you snooze, you lose)! I wasn’t bothered too much since I have run it a few times in the past and to be honest, it isn’t the most exciting or scenic race course I’ve been on.

I did however take the opportunity to head out and watch some of the runners. I took some photos and some video as well. The weather was great and the day looked to be a huge success!


These are some of the race leaders running beside Kobe Gakuin University on Port Island. This was probably at about the 6-7k mark.


More people, front to mid-packers running beside some residence apartments at Kobe Gakuin University.


Folks enjoying themselves running past the Daiei building across from Kobe General Hospital. This was almost the half way point.


Here are a few videos I shot and uploaded to You Tube with my iPhone (quality isn't the best):






Now, today I am suffering from a cold, but really wanted to go out and watch. I made a video when I ran this race in 2009 and when I just watched it this evening was surprised that I actually had a chest cold on that day as well!

Here is my video blog of the race from 2 years ago (I'm dying from a chest cold as I type this blog tonight as well!):



For lots of fun stuff, FOLLOW me on TWITTER: @jlandkev

Soju Boy...You're Fired!

I spent more than five years living and working in South Korea. I left Korea several years ago, but of course have a lot of memories. With some of those memories go some good stories. This is a story about one teacher I knew who let Korea's famous and potent drink, soju 소주, get the best of him.



95% of teachers I met and worked with in Korea were great people. I did however cross paths with a few human train wrecks.


Follow me on TWITTER: @jlandkev

The Quiet Life?

I often wonder what would I enjoy more, the quiet life in Japan or life here in the city. I am planning a big change next year and I wonder if moving to a quieter locale in Japan might be the answer. I do plan to head to Canada sometime in the near future (I hope) and resume my teaching career, but before I leave Japan’s shores, would it be a healthy move to live in the countryside or at least a smaller city/town?

I realize that life in a large Japanese city is exciting and fast paced. There are so many things to do and of course so many amenities. Some things I would definitely miss if I were to relocate to a smaller area, but there are many things I would not miss at all.

What would I miss about big city living?

1. International restaurants. My wife and I really do enjoy stopping by a Thai, Indian, Turkish, Italian, etc., restaurant on a Sunday afternoon for a late lunch. I would miss the variety of international eateries if I were to live in a small town.

2. Transportation. Public transportation in Japan’s large urban areas is really good. I suppose I would have to get a car!

3. Department stores. I would miss the convenience and variety of department store shopping.

4. Cultural events. I would miss the museums, parks and frequent outdoor cultural events.

5. More people speak English so it is easier to communicate.

6. More foreigners living in the big cities. People in a city like Kobe are quite used to seeing foreigners on a daily basis so they don’t tend to gawk much.


Things I would not miss:

1. Crowds of people all over the place.

2. Nightclubs and bars. I’m in my mid-thirties, married and have a child. To be honest, I have no interest in going to clubs anymore. I do however enjoy an occasional pint at a pub, but to be honest, I only go out once every few months!

3. Traffic

4. Air pollution

5. Tired looking salary men everywhere I go. They really are depressing.

6. Lack of green-space (mind you, Kobe does have a lot of it).

7. Having to commute by crowded train.

Now of course, life in the country would have its benefits. It would be quiet and peaceful. I could get outside and be much closer to nature. The environment would be cleaner and possibly safer for raising a child. I could also get involved in more outdoor activities. I would also be forced to speak more Japanese!

There would also be some downsides. I would stick out like a sore thumb as a foreigner and it would probably be more difficult to make friends and certainly not easy to have a variety of friends. I also think that the lack of amenities might start to get to me.

My wife thinks that I would have a romance period with my new rural location for about two weeks and then be bored out of my tree. She may be right. She tends to know me better than I know myself!

To be honest, I have no idea if I would be happier living in a smaller population center. I might be or I might not be. I suppose the only way I would ever know would be to give it a try. There are clearly both upsides and downsides to living in the city vs. living in the country. I suppose that is the same in any country you call home. Food for thought though!

Follow me on TWITTER: @jlandkev