VISA - It's everywhere you want to be.

Morning run

We meet with Nikki again  I ran with her and Michiaki walked with Rebecca.  Nikki and I had to keep remembering with side of the road the traffic would be on.  We survived! Rebecca got a few photos of the country side.  They spoke a little bit.  Rebecca asked what the water was for that runs on the side of the road.  We think it is irrigation water. He called it "living water". 

Breakfast was wonderful again. We really like persimmons here. I wish we could bring some home. 

Course tour

We toured the course.  We got to do our traditional photo on the bridge in Ibigawa Canyon.  I had fun messing with the half marathoners in our group telling them whether to turn across the bridge or not.  The full marathon crosses the bridge, but the half continues straight.  For a while, they didn't know what they were supposed to do, but I told them the truth in the end.

It's such a beautiful course.  Aaron and Nikki wish they could do the full course, but are glad they are not at the same time.  It should be cool and windy on race day. I'm hoping for an awful wind so that I can use some strategy to place as high as possible.  I'm not really worried about what time I get, but would like to finish with a high place.

Lunch

Lunch was at the ski resort that we've done in the past.  All the introductions happened.  The Japanese students did really well speaking in English.  The lunch was great!  There is some good variety.  I met my friend Mihoko that has been so helpful to me every year I've come.  She is very kind.

Shops and a temple

Before dinner, we stopped at a city with a lot of shopping on a long road.  empty We took our time heading along the road looking in shops along the way knowing that we had to be back to the bus by 4:30.  When we got to the top of the road, there was a great temple at the end of many stairs.  There were concrete and wooden structures, bridges, and ornaments.  It was centuries old with moss grown over much of it.  There was a still and reflective feel to the place.  We had less time than we wanted there, but it was till long enough to really enjoy.  We would have known to hurry and get there, but we couldn't hear the instructions while we were getting off the bus.  We made it to the temple after climbing many stairs.  The temple had a downstairs section with an alleyway.   We stepped down and the path was completely dark.  We could not see anything at all.  We were supposed to find a keyhole or lock.  We weren't sure and the way our translator was speaking, we thought he was saying rock the whole time instead of lock.  We just had to feel for it.  I think I found a keyhole, but we're not sure if that's what we were supposed to be finding anyway.  We made it through. It took nearly 10 minutes of feeling our way around before we got to the exit.  Kyle went ahead and scared Nikki at one point.  He was in trouble.

In the shops, we found a few things we wanted, but nowhere accepted credit cards.

From there, we went to a rice cracker factory.  They had so many different flavors ready for sample.  Some were pretty good and some were not.  We collected up a few good ones to bring back and share, but they didn't accept credit cards.  We really liked the chocolate ones.

Even though we couldn't use credit cards, we were able to get drinks of very good water along the road.

Giraffitti has been having a great trip!

Nikki and Rebecca wearing colors appropriate for the scenery

Japanese style eating.  They had pillows for us that had extra shape to them where our ankles could go.

One of our favourite Japanese drinks.

Michiaki bought everyone grapefruits.  They were very tasty.

Soaking in the mineral hot springs.

Hot chocolate from a vending machine.  We do this every year.

Kyle was telling us how Nikki's little toe is abnormally shaped and sized.  How could it even fit a bone inside it?  It's just a slit? Rebecca told him that that little toe won a marathon and got him a trip to Japan.  We looked at her toe and conversations went on with much laughter.  It got to that point where nobody can stop.  I think it was a great stress reliever which we didn't really need, but surely did enjoy.

My favorite spot on the marathon course.  Kind of windy and cold this year.