Fushimi Inari

In whichever direction I look, I seem to be surrounded by densely forested hills and mountains. I’ve been looking for a way to venture up into the hills since I arrived in Japan 3 months ago. I asked two different colleagues at work if there were walking paths into any of the nearby peaks, and they said that they didn’t know. Undeterred, I ordered the Lonely Planet’s Hiking in Japan guidebook. I figured that if there are local hikes, it must be possible to also run some of them as well, which would make for some interesting off-road long runs.

The first hike listed in the Kansai area is called Fushimi Inari. It starts at Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine, which is the most important of more than 30,000 such shrines in Japan that are dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. There’s a cobbled street lined with shops, teahouses and food outlets just next to the shrine. A culinary speciality of the area is yakitori (grilled sparrow). Tradition holds that farmers considered sparrows a nuisance and would roast them as a warning to the ones still flying free. Sadly, there was no yakitori available when I paid a visit, so I had to settle for the nearest equivalent – grilled quail.

 

Fushimi Inari Taisha is best known for the more than 10,000 bright red torii (shrine gateways) in the forest behind the shrine.  It is possible, if you choose your route carefully through the maze of torii lined paths, to reach the summit of Inaria-san, from which you can view Kyoto City in the valley below. Most visitors only go as far as this, but it’s possible to drop off the summit into a valley to the north of the mountain. Following a stream through the forest leads you away from the torii and all the way to Tofuku-ji. This is the end point of the hike, which takes only a couple of hours. Tofuku-ji is one of the five great Zen temples of Kyoto, with three gardens that are worth seeing.

 

It’s not possible to do this hike as a run: the route is far too busy with tourists. So in this sense, the reconnaissance trip was a failure. Yet this day trip ranks as my best day in Japan so far. The walk is pleasantly relaxing, passing as it does through a beautiful forest covered mountain and is a chance to escape for a few hours from the hustle and bustle of Kyoto City. The torii lined path is an iconic image of Kyoto City, if not Japan. In any case, there are several other hikes in the Kansai area listed in the book that I intent to check out, some of which are in much more remote locations than Fushimi, and possibly even runnable.

 

Track Training

I had been hoping to find a tartan track in Japan that I could train on. The benefits of being able to train on a track are enormous, in terms of being able to build the speed-endurance needed to set new PBs (personal bests). For the last two months, I’ve been training on a cinder track about 1 mile away from my apartment. Although this has been useful, particularly as I've been building up my base level of fitness, it's not as good as training on tartan. The cinder track has become rutted in parts due to the typhoon that hit Kyoto Prefecture about a month ago. Also, it is difficult to run even splits as there are no track markings every 100M, like you have on a tartan track.

This week’s track session was a simple 4x1200M reps, with a few striders thrown in. I can’t get to the nearest tartan track during the week, mainly because it is locked up at around 5pm. So track sessions will have to be weekend affairs. Friday evening happened to be my first enkai (work party) in Japan. It was at a Korean restaurant close to Kyoto City. The atmosphere was a little stiff and formal at first. Once the beer started flowing, however, it became a very lively affair indeed. According to some of the travel guides to Japan that I read before I came out here in August, Japan is often seen as a rigid, formal society, with Japanese people being largely inscrutable. This is a picture of Japan that is unrecognisable after attending an enkai. My work colleagues were incredibly friendly, warm, entertaining and hospitable.

 

A track session on Saturday would have been more preferable, but after the excesses of the work enkai the night before, I was content with an easy day and an easy run. Heading to Kyoto Tamba for my first tartan track session this (Sunday) morning, I was a little apprehensive. I know I’ve gotten fitter and stronger over the last month or so, but I wasn’t sure of the level that I’d reached. I knew this session would reveal this and show what I can realistically aim for in my first race in Japan, which is in 3 weeks’ time.

The session started well. I was aiming for 80 seconds per 400M lap pace. I did this comfortably for the first rep. I failed to hit this target for the next three reps! This was an eye opener. It was hot and I finished the session dehydrated. However, I can’t blame the weather. I now know that I’m well short of the fitness standard that I thought I was at and I’m aiming for. Whilst this is useful to know, it means that I have months of slogging away to try and get back to the sort of standard where I can start aiming to beat my PBs. This is a bit daunting, but I’m undeterred. I’ll be back at the track next weekend.

 

Osaka

Osaka is the name of the third most populated city in Japan and the country's second smallest prefecture. It is also home to an annual autumnal marathon, which was won last year by my fellow Morpeth Harriers club mate, Serod Batochir, in an impressive time of 2:11:54. However, it was a castle and beer that drew me to Osaka last weekend, rather than athletics.

Osaka Castle is the best known landmark of the city. Built at the end of the 16^th Century under the reign of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, it was subsequently destroyed twice, by an attacking army in 1615 and consumed by fire when it was struck by lightning in 1665. Rebuilt in the 1930s, a large public park surrounds the castle. After touring the castle battlements, I ate some Takoyaki. This is a well-known dish, associated with Osaka, made out of fried balls of dough, green onion, pickled ginger and octopus.

 

 

 

Osaka Castle Park covers a huge site and is a great place to run. It is very popular. There were thronging crowds of day tripping tourists, families, cyclists, baseball players and runners - all enjoying the delights of this open space in the heart of a vast urban metropolis. Though the paths were busy, it was possible for me to do an effort session comfortably around the park. Groups of local runners appear to meet and train there.
 

 

Having worked up a bit of a sweat in the baking sun, I took a short hop over to Tennoji Park, which was hosting the 2013 Osaka Oktoberfest. This was Osaka’s version of the Munich beer festival in Germany. There were stalls selling food and beers from numerous countries, to the accompaniment of music provided by a German folk band. As darkness fell over the city, I relaxed supping some ale whilst gazing over the dance floor area in front of the band, which was packed with a multi-national crowd of bleary eyed revellers.