Running Japan

Before going to Japan this year, I was really excited to have found out about the CHIYODA Soyukai running club, which has a web page in English inviting foreigners to join them in their weekly runs around the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately, circumstances prevented me from making their weekly time, but I hope to catch them next time.

Although I couldn't make it to a run with the Japanese club, I did get to the Imperial Palace. My guide was Alex (left), son of family friends who live nearby. We met at a subway stop right by the palace, ran the loop, and then jogged back to his house, where both families got together for dinner. The palace loop is lovely -- it's a mixed bag, some wide paths, some narrow, some urban, some more "park like". Plenty of views of the huge moat (pictured left), as well as beautiful park land and structures. I recommend it to any runners passing through Tokyo. My favorite part was a section in which beautiful old trees extended their branches over the path at about the 5 1/2 foot level -- perfect for decapitating me. Fortunately, they were well marked and I escaped with my head.

The Imperial Palace was a great tourist run, but I was thrilled when I found a place closer to home for my daily runs, and I had some great runs in the early hours while the family was sleeping.

That place was the Komazawa Olympic Park -- just a 13 minute run from my sister-in-law's apartment. The park was used in the 1964 Olympics, and now has a running/biking path around it's circumference. The loop is a little over 2 kilometers, and is marked every 100 meters. I loved having access to a marked path so that I could take advantage of the vacation time to get some good training in. I took easy runs, tempo runs, and even ran intervals there.

It was also interesting to observe the people that were out in the park. The path was too short for "serious" bikers, but there were plenty of folks coasting around on simple bikes with baskets on the front. There were a good number of joggers, but very few who were pushing the pace. There were also a lot of folks out walking. I was a very peaceful place.

There was a running store at the park, and I had to laugh when my wife translated the promo for a running outfit being sold there: "You may be in Komazawa Park, but with this outfit on, you will feel like you are running in New York's Central Park!"

At Tokyo Disney (don't ask), there was a path around the park (2 parks really), that was about 5K. It was quite beautiful in places, especially at sunrise, lined by palm trees with a stretch along the water.

In Kochi, I stumbled across a running path along the Kagami River just a few blocks from our hotel. There was a three mile stretch on each side that made a great 6 mile loop. At dawn the fish were jumping, and the many small bridges were silhouetted against the morning sky. I didn't get my camera to the river, but on the left is a shot that I borrowed, that gives you the idea of what I was seeing from the path.

One morning outside of Kochi, we were driving up a gorgeous winding mountain road on our way to a remote Japanese bath house, and we came upon a road race in progress. We passed the finish line, and continued up the road, passing runners going the other way. As I pointed and and made incoherent noises, my wife explained to her sister and brother in law that I would have loved to have been in the race. They smiled and nodded politely.

All in all, it was a great vacation. I was amazed by the great places I found to run, and I suspect that there is much more to be found. Running is very big in Japan, and I hope to experience more of it next time. Aside from finding cool new places to run, I hope to run with a club sometime, and even find a small race that I can enter.