Japan

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.

A friend of ours put together this video of me from the Tokyo Marathon. It was taken off Fuji television and he compiled all the clips that he found me in. Thank You Brent. That is awesome of you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1vYydYp8EU

I know Kristen got on here and told everyone my time, and I just wanted to let everyone know that I had a great race. We did not have perfect conditions, and honestly, when I woke up I was a bit worried about the wind. Kristen set me straight and got me to suck it up. Getting over your own mental block is half the battle.

It has taken a lot of work to get back to this point. Last year I ran my first marathon in January, and then I really lost the drive to run, so I basically took 6 months off until we moved to Japan. I have been training since we moved here in August with Tokyo Marathon in my sights. When I ran a half marathon in November in just over 74 minutes, the prospect of running 2:25 was not looking so good. Everything really came together the last couple months with a lot of hard work, and a couple of 120 mile weeks.

As for the race, it was really quite amazing. Nothing like lining up with 35,000 of your friends for a Sunday run. I had to battle my way to the front before the race started due to an unlucky number assignment that put me behind about 3000 people. Once I got to the front, I felt a lot better about the race. I was lucky enough to go out with the lead women, and their pacers brought me through the first half marathon right under goal pace. For those of you in the know, I was running side by side with Constantina Dita (womens olympic marathon champion) and she really does look like she is running all out from the very start. It was really windy during the whole race, and the last 5k had us running right into the wind. I stayed strong and didnt' let it get to me, and finished just under 2:26. I figure the wind cost about 2 or 3 minutes. I felt really comfortable, and know that I will be able to faster next time. Overall I am very happy with it. Here is a link if you care to see pictures. I have to warn you, they are not pretty. Surprisingly enough, I was actually very relaxed for most of the race, even if the pictures tell a different story. You can really get a good idea of the wind in a couple of them by looking at my hair. My bib number is 22020. http://tm09eng.allsports.jp/photo/photo_list_tag_search.php?tag_code=zekken&tag=22020

My plan now is to do some spring road races, and hopefully get in a couple of track meets with a little help from a running friend I have made in Tokyo. Next December there is an elite level marathon in Fukuoka Japan, that I am going to apply for, and I will make every effort to go for the Olympic Trials qualifying mark. They moved it down to 2:19, and there is no reason to shoot for anything slower. I'm sure we will keep you all up on the races between now and then.

Quinn

The days of substitute teaching have come to an end and I have joined the full time work force again. I sure have gained an appreciation for the people that work with kids everyday. It takes a special person to be in the classroom. I had some good moments with the kids and there were times it was definitely fun to be in the classroom but being a substitute is challenging. I am happy to be back doing something that I know.

I certainly did not expect to be planning an air force base any time in my career. Its amazing how the choice to join Kristen overseas has resulted in opportunities I never expected. This job is not going to come without its fair amount of challenges but after a few weeks I know I am up to the task.

I sure do not miss the commute to Buckeye. I used to commute an hour on the interstate. Now I am just over a mile from the office, and I ride my bicycle to work daily. For those of you I have not told, I built a single speed bike out of great Trek steel frame. Sorry Bill Hughey.

I am working in the Civil Engineering office as a Community Planner. Basically what it amounts to is that I am the Base Planner. Any development that is requested to occur has to come through my office. I am essentially getting a whole new education on planning. You guys in Buckeye would love this stuff. I can't say too much, because I am still figuring out what I am responsible for, but I am looking forward to working here at Yokota. All my family and friends can stop being worried about me (or jealous of me) because I am not working.

Keep sending emails. I would love to hear from everyone, and hope you are liking the blog. Kristen has been doing a great job, and she works really hard so that everyone knows what is going on over here. That's all for now.

Quinn

Last weekend we flew to Sapporo for the 60th annual snow festival. There were three main sections to the festival; one with ice sculptures, one with snow sculptures and another playland area. The large sculptures are made by the Japanese military and the rest are made by local groups. There were probably about 300 sculptures in all and about 5 very large ones.

This was our first time staying in a Japanese hotel. This was a business hotel and had been recently remodeled

Sapporo is known for its crab and here were some in a little pond outside of a restaurant.

Here is one of the ice sculptures. Those are real fish and crab inside. (dead of course)

This was a little train that you could ride that still ran on coal. They stopped it every other time around to put in a tiny piece of coal.

These next few pictures are of the very large sculptures. Quinn estimates one at over 60 feet. They had performers and shows on the larger sculptures. There were performances throughout the day.

We also went to the playland area but it was more set up for families. They had raft rides pulled by snowmobiles and giant slides made out of snow. I made my first snowman!

That night we ate at Ramen Alley. This is a little alleyway with about 15 or so Ramen noodle shops lining it. Here is a picture of everyone taking a picture. All famous sites in Japan are photographed about 1 million times per day.

Here they are cooking scallops inside of a shell on the grill. It looked really neat. We were too full to try one.

We went back to see the ice sculptures at night and they were even better with the lights shining on them. You could see all the details and texture. Each night people are carving new sculptures. They use chisels and chainsaws.

We went to Otaru the next day. It is about a 30 minute train ride from Sapporo to Otaru. It is known for its romantic canal street which is lined with old warehouses. There are also numerous glass blowing shops and music boxes. Can anyone say, Venice in Japan? I am wearing a mask in the picture to keep my face warm. It is very common to wear a mask in Japan when you are sick to protect others from catching your cold since you are often in close quarters with many other people. There go those curteous Japanese again! The reason we took this picture is because they built little teepee type structures around a lot of the trees and bushes in Sapporo. I wanted to see if anyone had any idea why they would do this. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Here we are on the romantic canal street.

We ate lunch in a really cool old warehouse. We had a crab lunch to celebrate Quinn's new job.

You may have heard of a Bento lunch before. Bento means boxed lunch in Japanese. Inside of the trainstation there was a department store with TONS of stands selling perfect little meals with tiny samplings of everything. You can get a little of the idea here. We spent 30 minutes walking around looking at all the food. That will give you an idea of how much there was!

Marketing in Japan is amazing. All of these people are waiting in line for a special type of carmel that I think is only sold in Hokaido. These little shops were all around the city and there were always people in line. There were security people holding up signs explaining at what times they would be restocking the shelves and people would get in lines hours ahead of time to be able to buy the carmels. There were even longer lines in the airport for these carmels. We were lucky enough to find a stand after passing through security to buy some of the carmels. I bet other people were made when they saw no line after the security check point. 10 tiny carmels for 9 dollars. They were good but I am glad I didn't wait in line.

Back to see the ice sculptures at night.

Beautiful scenery at the Hokdaido University. This is the most open space I have seen since moving to Japan.

Outside of Sapporo brewery. You have probably heard of Sapporo beer if you have been to a Japanese restaurant.

The Japanese love different flavored kit kats. They change with the season and based on the location. Here are the most odd flavors I have seen.