Sunday, June 10, 2018

Race Review: Minamiuonuma Gourmet Marathon 2018 (Japan Summer Trip 2018 Day 9)

I jumped ahead and write this post even though I am still in the midst of blogging day 4. The usual trend is I'll gave up writing my travelogue after the first few days but this race is something that I really want to write about, it was so hard for me to find the relevant info when I was researching about this race when I started planning for it in March.

As my friends and I were planning for our Japan trip, I relentlessly looked for a race in Japan that I can take part in, since I'm already here. It was not easy as this is summer period and is considered the off peak for having races. I finally chanced upon this HM at Niigata region, some place named Minami Uonuma to be exact. In Singapore terms, we call it really 'ulu' as its really some remote places and I could not find another blog or info about foreigners taking part in this race although it was featured in quite a few websites for its special theme.. the food!
Me when I was done with the race (photo provided by race website)

There is a race website but not in English, I had to depend on the translation that was provided by my browser. To sign up for the race, I was directed to the Runnet Japan website that was not meant for foreigners. It was relatively easy to sign up for my previous Japan marathons as I registered through Runnet Global, which are meant for 'gaijins' and foreign participants, this also showed that they recognised a huge number of participation from non-Japanese. However, for this race, its more catered for locals as it was not reflected in Runnet Global and I had to figure out how to register an account in Runnet Japan. To register myself with Japan Runnet, I required a Japan address, so I created an account with Tenso, a Japan delivery company that can forward stuff sent to them. I chanced upon this blog and it gave me some guidance. All these were done in March but I was crossing my fingers and mentally prepared to make other plans if this race does not happen. Another issue with this race is the accommodation, it was really difficult to find anywhere to stay near the race site as its really just a small town, luckily the nearest station Urasa is serviced by Shinkasen and JR trains, so I figured out I can stay at the next station Nagaoka, which is a much bigger city and there are many hotel options.

The double decker Shinkasen
The night before the race, I placed out all the stuff needed but was too lazy to do a flat lay shot. I had to do careful planning as I'll leave my luggage at my hotel in Nagaoka and just bring along a backpack for the race. Anyway, this is just a HM and its summer so overall its still easier to plan than my previous overseas races. Taking the Shinkasen to Urasa station from Nagaoka only took 12min, I decided to wake up at about 6am to catch the 6.56am train, as the next train is about 40-50min later and that will be too late. I've wanted to go down to the onsen for a soak but decided against it as I was running late after all the snoozing. I managed to go down to the reception for checkout at about 6.35am and I was at the station in good time. At Nagaoka station, I saw many runners (easy to spot them from the outfit) and guessed they are from other areas of Japan and they had also decided to stay one station away.

I guess this is where the race will start
It was a 15min walk from Urasa station to the race site 八色公園 (Eight colours park?) and after the SKS arrived at Urasa, many runners alighted. It seems that this race is popular among locals and since I'm walking along with them, I did not have to navigate and find my way around, I just followed the crowd. It was quite early when I reached the park, the organisers and food vendors are just setting their booths. I had to arrive early as Tenso was really strict with identification, I had sent them my scanned I/C copies so that they already verified I am really staying at that address stated. But in the end, they did not forward me the race pack even though they informed me that they received something from the race organiser. I'm registered in English name in Tenso but for this race my name in kanji (Chinese name) was used, they sent me two emails and I tried to explain to them but they insisted I show them the some proof that the race pack was mailed out to me. Sigh... I really gave up.

I read from the race website that runners who forget their timing chip and bib can replace these at a cost of 1000Y, so I believed there will be a booth or a counter for this purpose. I was walking up and down the whole park but I could not find the officials booths to do that. My heart sank when it was already 8am, more people had arrived and I already went around 3 times looking out for the official booths but I could not locate them. As I walked around, I imagined myself ended up not taking part in the run, and I'll walk back to the hotel feeling sad that I've wasted the whole morning here. It also seems like I was the only foreign runner around, there were zero signage in English unlike other races.

Finally got my bib number and timing chip
Free fermented drink
Finally, I walked back to where I started from and saw some booths that looked like official booths, although I was not sure what they do. Someone who could understand English managed to point out a booth to me, after I gestured to her I needed the number tag. Phew! I went to the booth, passed them the email printout to show that I've registered for the race and they were very friendly even though they spoke limited English, they told me to wait around as they radioed someone for help. Finally, someone who spoke Chinese with PRC accent came and I really heaved a sigh of relief, he explained that the kanji system does not have my surname character 张 so he have to manually key it into the system and also issue a new number bib to me. The previous lady who was really friendly saw a 1000Y note in my hand and told me 'no money!'. I thanked her and the really helpful staff and went to find a spot to get myself ready for the race.

Baggage deposit
Toilet cubicles only for the ladies
When I was collecting my replacement number bib, the staff also explained that there's two baggage deposit areas, I remember seeing the other one at the other end of the park as I made my way around looking for the official booth. As my baggage tag was red, I was supposed to attach the red tag on my bag and deposit my bag at the baggage area just nearby. The cute ladies at the baggage area was stuck when she gave me a string of instructions and I asked her 'English please?' She turned to her friend who finally said with much difficulty 'One... thirty...' I guess they were trying to tell me to collect my bag by 1.30pm, so I gave them a big smile and hold up my hand showing the 'okay' sign. With my bag settled, I went to the rows of portable toilets and saw that there a row meant for ladies, a row just for the guys (its without door and only urinals so I thought it would be rude if I snap the guys peeing) and a row of unisex toilets meant for both ladies and men. I went to the toilets early enough that there were only one person queueing before me and I got into one pretty quickly. When I was done, there were already a few people outside and the queue got longer and longer after awhile.

Timing chip tied to my shoes, I loved the race motto
Many families set up their tents to wait for the runners
Other than the vendors setting up all the food, the whole park was full of families who came and set up their tents and mats on the grass. The whole atmosphere was just a like a huge family event instead of the usual running event I experienced. It was already 8.30am but everyone around me seems to be at no rush to get to the Start Line. I had difficulty making out where is the Start Line was as there was no signage and I'd thought of just following people who were ready and seemed to be heading there, but the groups of people around me were just milling around aimlessly. I remember seeing the placards indicating the estimated finishing time at the roadside when I headed to the park earlier, so I went towards that direction. Some runners were gathered at the side of the road, but seemed to be in no hurry to form up. This reminded me of GCAM, where people just casually stand at whatever pace they like and everyone did not seem to be in a hurry to squeeze themselves to the front of the start pen. There were some mini buses ferrying runners from the nearest carpark (which was also some distance away) to the race site, but gradually the road get deserted when the shuttle service for the morning was over and the runners took over the road to get ready.
Runners starting to get ready, those who finish after 2h are all in one big group
Took a selfie since there was a lot of time to spare

Fortunately, unlike the weather forecast, there was no rain today. Unfortunately, its a rather hot day compared to the weather of the previous days and days after the race. I think it got to 23 degree by 9am and the sun was shining down strong, so I took off my jacket while walking around the park earlier. I waited for 20min to 25min and we were off! I can only remember running back towards the JR/SKS station and then we turned left and ran parallel along the tracks. At times we could see the trains racing with us in the distance, there are lots of lots of paddy rice fields that formed quite a scenery as we ran along. More notably, I felt the heat and the warmth of the summer morning and I could see everyone around me perspiring. For the first few kilometres, I tried to keep up with the pace of the people around me but I knew I could not do that for too long as I was kind of panting from the run. Finally, we came to the first water point after 3km point and as expected, it was rather chaotic as everyone felt hot and thirsty. The water station was actually really long and there was no need to stop at the first few tables to jostle with the rest, there was also sport drinks at every station.

4km point with the paddy field behind
The countryside scenery was actually not too bad

I slowed down quite a bit and even take walking breaks after the first water point as I did not really do any runs in May and June. In fact, this run is even my first HM for this year. Dont ask me what happened, things were really good in January and February but I slowly lost the motivation and did not even attend any local races except for the Star Wars Run. The weather also got much better after the few first kilometres, there was cloud cover so it was not so hot anymore. It was just a straight road for the first 8km or so, so we just kept on going. I was worried that I was going to be one of the slowest but there were still lots of people behind me, so I took comfort in that and slowed down to my usual marathon pace.

About 18 mins ahead from the cut off time
The U-turn point for us
There were salt, salt candies, sport drinks and water at every water station that were about 2-3km apart. Unlike the major city marathons, other than the race volunteers, there were only scattered farmers who came to cheer us along the way. The U-turn point came early at 9km and it is also the first point where all runners have to meet the cut off timing of 1h 30min (I'm not sure if there was a sweeper bus for this event). After that, we headed back towards the direction we came from but the route was tougher than the first 9km. There were some upslopes and downslopes, even going into the tunnel at some point. I was so so glad that this was just a HM and I was wondering how I ever did my FMs in the past. At the 15km to 16km point, there was not one but two steep upslopes and I gave up running altogether when I see those slopes. At the 17km where the second cut off timing was, we ran through the IUJ (International University of Japan) and I could see a lot of foreign students cheering us on at that water point. The cut off time at this point was 2h 30min and I was only earlier by 4-5min at that point. Nevertheless, it was already the last few kilometres so I pushed on.

Can see a few cosplayers running just ahead, kudos to them!
The scenery was actually not too bad and it took my mind off from running
At this point, it felt the same as running through GBTB or the MBS and heading back towards the Float where we usually start and end our local HM/FM. For this race, the ending part after 20km was the most torturous as we had already turned back into the park but the path ahead was still meandering here and there and seemed to be never-ending. By this point, we could see that some runners had finished and they were walking around the park but where in the world is the end point?? Some runners, like me, had tried to run the last stretch but gave up when we turned here and there but we still did not see the finishing line.

Very nice volunteer who removed my timing chip 

Guy who dressed up as R2D2/ C3PO finished just before me

There was a cosplaying competition for this race and it is common for runners to dress up in Japan races, but I really take my hats off these people as it felt tiring enough when I just had my normal gear on. This R2D2/C3PO guy won the cosplay competition and I think he slowed down when people requested for photos, so he ended the race just before me.

Receiving the bowl
My finisher cert was printed immediately
I did not know much about the gourmet marathon concept (except for its name) till after the race. Instead of giving out medals, each of us have one special souvenir bowl and after the race, I could see everyone walking around with mountains of rice in this bowl. This bowl turned out to be a magic bowl as anyone with that can go back for unlimited amount of Koshihikari rice, which is a specialty of Niigata region. The whole race site became a joyful picnic event withe people enjoying the rice with the side dishes sold at the other booths.

My finisher's entitlements
Everyone enjoying the food post race
I walked around to take photographs and collected my bag to pack my stuff. Just at this moment, my tummy started to hurt really bad, I guessed something that I took earlier (could be the fermented drink or the gel) did not agree with my stomach. Fortunately, I already finished the race so I joined the queue for the proper public toilet nearby.

Everyone enjoying rice out of the souvenir bowl
The food area where our bowls turned into a magic one
All finishers were also given 300Y to get some side dishes to go along with the rice, I managed to get a soup with various ingredients for 100Y and wanted to get other stuff but my hands were full. I set down my bowl at an empty table to start enjoying my food before I go back for more dishes. I looked around me and saw that there were some bowls left on the tables with the rice and some dishes, I was bewildered as why would these runners leave their precious bowls behind? Then I realised that the place was safe enough for runners to leave their bowls here and go hunt for more food so I did the same. I left my food there and went to look at the stalls again, I got some karaage chicken and vegetable juice for a refreshing drink this time round. Unfortunately, my stomach started rambling and I had to run to the toilet again, so I did not get to enjoy the feast after the run. As expected, the civic minded Japanese left the place clean after enjoying the food, I could see that nobody left any of the wrappers or empty food containers behind. I hope that my home country can truly become a clean country with the residents doing the same someday.

All set to start my feast
Very friendly volunteers gave us the rice
This was all I could carry on my hands for the first round
After another trip to the toilet, I had no choice but to dispose the food that I could not finish. By this time, the crowd has thinned and everyone was getting ready to pack up and leave the place. As I was walking out towards the train station, there was a prize presentation ceremony of some sort and the air got cooler, with some drops of rain coming down.

The cosplayers
There was a volunteer to help us sort out the thrash
The final ceremony with some group singing on stage

The walk back to Urasa station seemed shorter this time round as I knew where I was heading to, many other runners walked with me as the race had wrapped up at the park. I looked around and saw the same observation I've made during my maiden Japan race, people do not change into the flip flops like what we do after our HM/FM in Singapore. For this race, I do see that some runners slipped on more stylish slippers like Nike, Crocs, Birkenstock. Even though I have my Havaianas stowed in my luggage, I felt too shy to wear that taking SKS back to Tokyo. My toes were screaming and felt stifled, so I changed into another pair of sneakers while waiting for the train back to Tokyo.

Thankful for the good race
Urasa station (quite rural so I probably will not be here again)
I took the SKS back to Nagaoka to collect my luggage from the hotel and changed my shoes and T-shirt since there was plenty of time before the next SKS back to Tokyo arrived. I felt glad that I had my Japan Rail Pass as these trips could exceed $100SGD if I decide to reserve seats for all the trips. This is the last day of my rail pass validity, so I decided to make good use of that and travel back to Tokyo for the night. Ueno is only three stops away on the SKS, but the ride took almost 1.5h. It's considered speedy enough for such a long distance covered. As I approached Tokyo, I saw that it was raining quite heavily. According to my friends who were at other parts of Japan, I was lucky that the rain did not disrupt any of my plans after Hoshinoya as it had been quite rainy in many parts of Japan.

Hotel Review: Dormy Inn Ueno

After I alighted at Ueno, I looked around and felt that the week had passed too fast. Almost a week ago, we were here to get our Rail Pass, had our lunch before we depart for the temple and getting snacks before my first ever SKS ride. I digged out my umbrella from the luggage and went on my way to my last hotel for this trip. I was really glad that I brought a really good luggage that went through all these stony paths, rain or shine with me. It was also good that I knew exactly where Dormy Inn was as I did not have to check my phone for navigation while holding the umbrella and pushing my luggage along. It's just next to Sardonyx Ueno where I stayed the previous time.

After I entered, another sliding door to separate the room
The toilet and shower area
Anyway, I was doubly glad that this hotel has an onsen as I could not wait to get myself washed up after the SKS ride in my sticky and smelly skin. The reception of the hotel was at the second floor and I got checked in quite quickly. The design and everything about the hotel looked fresh and new as it only started operation in 2015.

Good design to make full use of the space
Bed is facing the door so they have another sliding door
For a single room, the use of space is rather clever. The design was quite rare as I faced a sliding door separating the bedroom and the bathroom once I stepped in. I guess its because of the layout of the room, people do not like to sleep with their legs facing the door so the extra sliding door was a good way to solve the problem.

The dry area of the onsen
The indoor and outdoor onsen
I quickly settled down and changed to go for a good bath at the onsen. It was about 5.30pm so it should be not be too crowded yet. One of the two things that I did not like about this hotel is the ugly pyjamas provided, the oversized and cheap quality tee made me looked like some cleaning auntie. The other thing that was not so good was that there was only one lift serving the 12 floors, so at times there were some waiting around for the lift to arrive.

Bathing area at the onsen
Laundry was free of charge!
One thing that I really loved about this hotel was the free laundry at the onsen, I only had to pay 100Y to use the dryer and that's really cheap compared to the others hotels I stayed at during this trip. I did most of the laundry the previous night, so I only had to drop in the clothes I wore for the race. The dryer was 100Y was 20min, but it seemed to worked longer than that, and the strong powerful dryer was able to dry my clothes really well so I was happy that I could go home with all my clothes clean. 

Entrance to the onsen
Loved these very fresh meiji milk in glass jars
It felt really good after the onsen session and I felt lazy to change and go out in the rain to get dinner or snacks after that. I started updating the blog with my race review and decided to just get the free ramen provided by the hotel as my dinner. At 9.30pm, I promptly made my way down to the 2nd floor where the restaurant was, that was the venue where they serve the free ramen from 9.30pm-11pm nightly. The lift got a bit jammed up during this period as the free ramen was popular among the people staying at the hotel.


Saturday, June 09, 2018

Japan Summer Trip 2018 Day 4 (5/6)

The monk had told us the night before that he encourage us to wake up by 5.30am to watch the sunrise in the morning. Most of us were skeptical that we can wake up that early even though I was quite keen to achieve that. However, I was surprised when my phone apps showed that the sunrise is at 4.45am, I was puzzled but I thought the monk could not be wrong as he had been living in the temple for so long. The sun was indeed up by 4am+ and it woke all of us up immediately as the hall we were sleeping in has no curtains and the sunlight shone through our 'bedroom' like it was already 8am. We then concluded that the monk had wanted us to watch the sun coming up among the mountains instead of the actual sunrise that we imagined.

Sun rose up around 5.45am
J playing with the dogs 
The Kannon statue near the viewing point
We took a short walk of about 400m to the viewing point where we can watch the sun 'rise'. It was hard to imagine that it was just 5am+ as its usually still pitch dark in SG at that time. We took some photos around the place and walked back to the temple for a rest. There was nothing much to do except to keep our beddings and stuff and laze around since we had one hour before the zazen meditation session.

Thursday, June 07, 2018

Japan Summer Trip 2018 Day 3 (4/6)

After putting first two days of clothes into the coin operated machine (400Y for 1kg of clothes) and waited for it to dry at near 1am, I finished my blog for the second day and turned in. 
We went into a random izakaya near Ueno station for lunch

I had wanted to wake up early at 6am for a jog at the nearby Ueno Park but the snooze bug overpowered my will to wake up again. We only went downstairs for breakfast at 9.30am as J wanted to snooze as well. The breakfast set was really simple, just a choice of bagel/pancakes/hotdog bun with a drink of choice. We decided to just takeaway the food so that we can go back to the room to pack up for checking out. In the meantime, Y and his gf TJ had arrived at Tokyo, we decided to meet at Ueno station for brunch. 


Shinkasen area in the station is much less crowded
My japan rail pass for the 7 days
Wefie before we start our long journey

We will be heading to a old temple Taiyoji for a shokubu stay. It is something quite different for all of us and I look forward to experience it. There was still plenty of time before we need to board the train, so we went to get the reserve ticket we will need for traveling together later. We also went New Days (common convenience store at train stations) to get some snacks. I got myself a variety of cheese and onsen egg. That was my first ride on Shinkansen but it was just a short ride of 38 min and we soon alighted at Kumagaya to take a long long ride on the local Chichibu railway to the temple. 


Showing off the ancient looking ticket on Chichibu Railway


The streets looked deserted when we arrived 

Very small and simple station (rushed to toilet before monk picked us)
Taiyoji is actually in Saitama area and we only arrived at the last station Mitsumineguchi Station around 4pm. The station is quite deserted so we assumed the other few ladies waiting for us were also going to the temple. Soon, the monk drove up in a 6-7 seater, loaded up our luggages and we set off for the temple. The ride to the temple was about 20 minutes, it went up some winding road as we got higher up the mountain. As I was about to feel a little unwell about the ride, the van stopped and we have arrived.

Front building with French name looked out of place here
Our luggages left in front of our shared 'room' for the night
The inside of the room, with tatami flooring

Temple lodging (know as Shukobu) is getting popular with foreign visitors in Japan, it provide a different experience for people who are curious like us and all of us were keen to try it out for this trip. Taiyoji is few hundreds years old but it is rather well maintained and clean, just like every other part of Japan. The monk who picked us up seemed to run a one man show, but there was also another obasan who helped him prepare meals for us. That's it, just two of them and many dogs/puppies in the premises.

The 'main office'
My dear friends listening to the monk's briefing about sutra copying
The monk showed us to our 'room', which in fact was a big hall where five of us will share for the night. There were two other groups of people staying over with us, four Japanese ladies who share another big room and two caucasian ladies who arrived before us, I assumed they are Americans. After we left our luggages in the room, the monk started to brief us about our first activity, which was the sutra copying. He emphasized the concept of emptiness or 无 mentioned in the sutra, we are supposed to focus really well and think of nothing, I find it really hard as my mind always drift to random stuff.

Tables were set up outside the main hall so that we can copy looking at the zen grounds
We prepared tea before we start and this is the tape for writing names
My teacup during the stay
After we first arrived, the monk told us a few times that we should try to go to the bath before the sunset at 7pm as it might be cold. There is a outdoor bathing area and a rotenburo but we decided to go and check it out while the rest of the travelers started writing their sutra in the very zen environment. We planned to let TJ go to the bath first, then the guys, then J and me (as I'm not really afraid to shower in the cold or the dark). The rest of us went to get our materials and started our sutra copying.

The rotenburo looked pretty good
The materials needed
And I started writing
The surroundings were so quiet that the guys chatting while they bathe were echoed around the place and we could hear them talking and laughing. No wonder the rest of the ladies threw us dirty looks after our little recce to the bathing place, we were discussing about the bathing arrangement loudly then and I guess it really spoilt the whole 'mood' of the place. We tried to keep as quiet as we can after that so that we would not disturb the rest of them anymore.

Sutra chanting time
Photo of the monk taken from E's FB
The equipment used for chanting sutra

My masterpiece! Cant see all the flaws from far
At about 6pm, it was time to take a break and we went to sit around the prayers hall for a sutra chanting session. The monk even prepare copies of the sutra with some translation and the 'phonics' of how it sound like so that we can follow what he was chanting. It was quite a short session of 15min, I went back to my sutra copying after that so that I can finish up my work before dinner. Soon, the sky turned dark and I finally finished the sutra, I got a little impatient and wrote faster towards the end. It got even harder to totally clear my mind then.

The oishi shojin ryori, Buddhist vegetarian dinner


At 7+, it was time for dinner. We moved all the tables in and prepared the main hall for dinnertime. Everyone was famished by now. I was kind of looking forward to the meals there as I'm very keen to try out vegetarian cuisine, especially one that is prepared Japanese style. Everyone gobbled down their food quickly, I finished all the other dishes and took a few mouthfuls of the rice. We helped to return the tray and by this time, it was already dark outside and the weather got a bit chilly, everyone started to put on their jacket but I was still feeling fine.

Very cute illustrations of the activities
Soon our beds are all laid out
Striking a pose for the photographer
Luckily for me, the summer night weather was quite okay for an outdoor bath, I did not feel cold even though I was the last among the whole group of 12 to go for the bath. The facilities at the temple was considered not too bad as it already hosted many travelers for the past few years. At least the bath facilities were considered decent and all we had to bring was our slippers and towels. Our router could not get signals in the mountains so it was really fortunate that there was even Wifi at the temple.

Shortly after my bath, we gathered in the prayers hall for a sermon session by the monk. He explained about Buddhism in simple English and also get us to ask questions. We realised that he used to be business man and only took over Taiyoji ten years ago. It helped a lot that he can understand and speak simple English, or it'll be quite difficult for him to repeat the same routine daily. We realised that it was quite difficult to be granted this stay in Taiyoji and TJ actually made some overseas calls to him to confirm our stay in advance. There were also some friends of E who had wanted to try this but there was no availability.

As there was nothing much we could do after the sermon session, we prepared our room for bedtime. We were already lying down by 10+ and it was way too early for my bedtime but we decided to get some rest since we had a really long day. I was used to outdoors and camps so it was not too difficult for me to fall asleep. I got up again at 11pm+ to put on a jacket and socks as I was sleeping nearest to the door leading outside and the temp had dropped a lot, so cold that it got too uncomfortable for me.