Obuse

Last weekend we went up to Obuse which is near Nagano so Quinn could run a half marathon. It is a beautiful area known for growing fruits and vegetables including: peaches, nectarines, grapes, celery, carrots, and more. The race was really neat and went through residential areas, orchards, along a river, and through hills. The little town of Obuse is really cute with lots of crafts and clothing shops. Unfortunately, many of the restaurants only serve desserts or buns filled with various items. Outside of one restaurant was a giant sculpture of a beatle with another beatle on its nose. Many Japanese children carry these beetles around in little clear boxes and keep them as pets.

Here were some grapes along the race course.

Quinn is in fourth in this picture. He came in fifth with a time of 73 minutes. He was disappointed with his time as he had hoped for 70 minutes. Hopefully he will use this as motivation for Fukuoka in December.

We stayed in a traditional Japanese in (Ryokan) the second night. You sleep on futons on the tatami floor. You can see the mats in the background of the picture. Here Quinn is wearing a Yukata (traditional Japanese robe)

They serve you a multicourse Japanese dinner. There were four or five plates with each course. The food was delicious and most of it was identifiable.

We travelled to the race with an international running group called Namban Rengo. They set up the whole weekend which was really nice. It was a fun group of people. We all wore our Yukatas to dinner. We also went to an outdoor onsen (hotbath) that overlooked the river below. It was really cool. Here is the group.