For my next trick...

I'd quite like to run a marathon. I started running again soon after I got back from Japan in November last year, and have got back to the point where I was a couple of years ago (before injury persuaded me to give up running and take up walking) where I can run 5-6km without any difficulty. Barring further injury, I reckon I should be able to run a marathon in a year or so.

My goal is the Tokyo Marathon in February 2009. Unfortunately this is quite a popular marathon, so popular that they hold a lottery to determine which of the applicants get to run. They had just over 130,00 applicants for this year's marathon, with just 25,000 of these getting to start. So if I don't get selected I'll try the Gold Coast Airport Marathon instead. That would be in July 2009. If injury forces me to give up the idea of a marathon altogether, I'll bail out and do something easier, like walking the Tokaido.

Walking to Tokyo (by Erik)

Day 22: Omiya - Nihonbashi

Distance covered: 30.1km
Weather: Fine

We breakfasted at our hotel (me on bread and coffee, Erik on the Japanese buffet) at 7am and set off on the final stage of our journey at 7.45am. The weather was perfect again.

It was built up most of the way, and convinced that we'd seen the last of the countryside, I made a bet with Erik that we wouldn't see any cabbage patches between Omiya and Nihonbashi. A few kilometres down the road he found some cabbages in someone's front garden and claimed his 100 yen.

At around midday we crossed the Arakawa River, which marks the boundary between Saitama prefecture and Tokyo. Half way across the Ota Bridge we saw Mount Fuji again in the distance. We felt like celebrating, but were mindful that we still had around 15km to go.

Soon after crossing into Tokyo we stopped for lunch at a swanky bar/café, which had some pretty reasonably priced lunch specials. We felt a bit out of place in our trekking gear, and were again reminded that we weren't in cabbage country anymore. We did, however, see a bear soon after that. A stuffed one in a shop window.

The last post-town before Nihonbashi was Itabashi, which still manages to retain some old world charm despite being in the middle of Tokyo.

We had already worked out that the route into Tokyo would take us through Sugamo, the neighbourhood in which Erik used to live, but it wasn't until we got there that we realized it would take us along Jizo-dori and practically right past Erik's old apartment. In fact we'd almost past his old station before we recognized the place, and had to double back to have a closer look and take some photos.

We had refreshments at Denny's by Sugamo station before setting off on the final leg of the day, which took us past Tokyo University and Akihabara and (after nearly making a wrong turn about 2km from the finish line) down the home straight to our goal at Nihonbashi.

The light was fading as we got there, but the neon lights were beautiful. We crossed the bridge, shook hands, and had a salaryman take our photo. Erik then caught the subway to his friends' house, and after a bit of searching I eventually found my hotel in nearby Kayabacho.

The End

Day 21: Kumagaya - Omiya

Distance covered: 35.9km
Weather: Fine

We breakfasted at 6.30am. It was bread and coffee only, so Erik, who needs his protein and vegetables, brought down a salad and egg roll he'd bought the night before and proceeded to eat it with a teaspoon, which was quite entertaining.

We set off around 7.55am. The weather was perfect (not a cloud in the sky) and the scenery surprisingly pleasant. Soon after leaving the city of Kumagaya we climbed up onto a river embankment and were surprised to see a snow-covered Mount Fuji in the distance.

The next post-town (Konosu) was 15.6km away, so we had lunch there at a Gusto chain restaurant. In the afternoon the landscape became less and less rural. We spent much of the time walking along a narrow road next to the main highway, often with not much room between us and the traffic.

We had a break for coffee and cake before making our final push into the old post-town of Omiya. Omiya grew into a major city with its own Shinkansen station after the war, eventually merging with two nearby cities to become part of Saitama city, the newly designated capital of Saitama prefecture and home to the John Lennon Museum.

Arriving in Omiya was like arriving on a different planet after spending so long walking through rural Japan. The flash new buildings and flash young women in boots and miniskirts reminded us we were just a day's journey from Tokyo. We even passed a bunch of ignorant gaijin, one of whom felt obliged to comment on our dress sense. He'd probably never walked more than a kilometer in his life. Loser!

Shortly before reaching Omiya station I saw a giraffe.

Omiya station was huge. We asked at the tourist information desk for directions to our hotel, which was about five minutes walk away. We checked in at around 5pm and then went back to the station area for dinner. We were a bit overwhelmed by all the bars and restaurants, and ended up at an Asian all-you-can-eat buffet place that wasn't so good (expensive, a bit gloomy inside, lots of dishes "sold out"). Not such a great choice for our last evening meal together. Never mind. One more day and we could proudly boast, "We've walked the Nakasendo from Kyoto to Tokyo."

Day 20: Shinmachi - Kumagaya

Distance covered: 31.7km Weather: Rain After the previous day's raw egg and coffee debacle, the thought of another Japanese style breakfast was a bit too much, so I got up early and popped down to a nearby 7/11 to buy a fruit yoghurt, fruit slice, egg sandwich and iced coffee, which I ate it in my room before joining Erik in the dining room downstairs. Apart from the raw egg, the hotel breakfast actually looked quite nice. There was hot coffee, too, so I helped myself to a cup. We set off at around 7.45am. The going was easy and we made good time to the next post-town of Honjo. Along the way we passed a sign indicating we were less than 100km away from Tokyo, which seemed more than enough reason to take a photo of it! We had a break in Honjo, then pressed on to the next post-town of Fukuya, arriving in time for lunch. After a bit of a hunt for somewhere to eat, we found a curry restaurant by the station (a lavish brick building resembling a European palace - the station that is, not the curry restaurant). We resumed walking at 1pm, hoping to be in Kumagaya by 3.30pm or so, but about 5km out from Kumagaya I got confused by a new motorway that wasn't on our map and we ended up drifting off course. Although I had no idea if were on the correct road or not, I thought we were heading in roughly the right direction. When we finally did ask someone the way we learnt we were at least a couple of kilometres from where we should have been. We eventually reestablished contact with the Nakasendo on the main street of Kumagaya where the old road famously goes through a department store. Much of central Kumagaya was destroyed during the war, and during the post-war reconstruction period the streets were realigned and a corner of the Yagihashi Department Store (the cosmetics section, to be precise) ended up being built over the top of the old Nakasendo. So if you want to walk this section of it you have to time your arrival to coincide with the opening hours of the store. It was close to 5pm by the time we arrived at our hotel by Kumagaya station. We checked in then went out for dinner at a chain Italian restaurant, where I had spaghetti, garlic toast, seafood chowder, and a glass of white wine all for 903 yen, while Erik had a steak and pizza. I noticed that my left big toe (the one that was operated on back in New Zealand) was a bit sore around the nail. I hoped it wasn't infected.

Day 19: Isobe Onsen - Shinmachi

Distance covered: 32.6km
Weather: Rain

Breakfast at Miharashikan resembled breakfast at most of the Japanese inns we stayed at, except this time we each got a raw egg to break over our bowl of rice. Unlike Erik (who on more than one occasion helped himself to two portions of natto at breakfast time), this is one Japanese custom I've never gotten used to. The proprietress offered us fried eggs instead, but I was too proud to say anything. So my raw egg lay on its wee saucer untouched.

As an experiment, I decided to see how long I could last without a cup of coffee in the morning. The experiment was a dismal failure. By around 9am I was feeling quite fatigued, so I got an iced coffee from a 7/11 and gulped it down on the spot. I felt a lot better.

The rest of the journey to Shinmachi was pretty uneventful. We made good time on the flat and reached the city of Takasaki by lunchtime. It rained most of the day, so I didn't take a lot of photos. Also, because the scenery tended to be a little monotonous once we got onto the Kanto plain, I started taking photos of some of the statues, monuments and route markers we passed along the way. The one below marks a fork in the old road, the path to the left leading to Nikko and the path to the right leading to Edo (Tokyo). Luckily we chose the path to the right.

The only real incident occurred in the afternoon when we were about 5km from our destination of Shinmachi. A man in a van stopped beside us and asked us where we were going. When we told him, he said there was nothing to see along the way and offered us a ride in his van. He didn't want any money, he assured us. We thanked him but explained that we wanted to walk because it was important that we walk the entire route of the Nakasendo. He didn't seem to understand, and insisted we get in his van. In the end we had to walk away. It was indeed a strange encounter.

We arrived in Shinmachi around 3.45pm and checked into the Shinmachi Station Hotel, a rather dreary little business hotel that was probably the most depressing place we stayed in during the entire journey. In fact the whole town was rather depressing. We did have a nice meal at an okonomiyaki restaurant, though. The proprietor was very friendly, and even cooked the okonomiyaki for us.

Day 18: Karuizawa - Isobe Onsen

Distance covered: 21.8km
Weather: Fine

It wasn't quite the minus 4 degrees that Erik predicted, but at 4 degrees it was certainly nice not to have to go outside for breakfast.

We left our hotel at around 7am and rejoined the Nakasendo before passing through old Karuizawa, which is quite picturesque and laid back compared to the new town which later sprang up around the railway station. We then began the climb up to Usui Toge, the last of the passes on route to the Kanto plain and Tokyo.

Our intention was to follow the advice of Mr Kishimoto and trace the original Nakasendo route to the top of the pass rather then the more modern walking track, but although we soon found it with the help of one of Mr Kishimoto's route markers and were able to follow it for a few hundred metres, we soon lost the trail and had to rejoin the road above to continue the climb. We found the old route again for the last hundred metres or so, then continued on up to the lookout area for a wonderful view of the mountains on the Gunma prefecture side of the Gunma/Nagano border.

After a breather, we started the long (7km) descent to the next post-town of Sakamoto. We soon left the road and didn't see it again till we reached the bottom. The descent took us from an altitude of 1200m at the top of the pass down to 400m at Sakamoto (Karuizawa, our starting point for the day, is at an altitude of 950m). We passed a few day hikers going up to the shrine at the top of the pass, one of whom stopped for a while to talk to use. It was easy going most of the way, although the last stretch was quite rocky and steep.

Once at the bottom we started looking for a lunch spot, and found a nice restaurant inside a resort complex just off the main road. I had an eggplant and mushroom spaghetti, which was almost as delicious as the spaghetti I had at Sakudaira. The coffee was good too. We then set off again, following the valley into which we'd descended to the post-town of Matsuida. This stretch was quite beautiful in parts, with glorious views of the valley below and the craggy mountains on the far side of the river.

We arrived in Matsuida at around 3pm. We looked around for a coffee shop but couldn't find one, so I resorted to buying a coffee in a supermarket and drinking it in the car park. We then continued on to our final destination of the day, the hot-spring resort town of Isobe Onsen. Getting to Isobe Onsen required leaving the Nakesendo and descending into the river valley below. We had to ask for directions a couple of times, but we eventually arrived at our ryokan, Miharashikan, just as the sun was setting.

Our room was newly renovated and nicely decorated. We had a soak in the ryokan's hot-spring bath before heading down for dinner at 6.30pm. We shared the dining room with a couple of older Japanese guys who used to be schoolmates at university and who now work for different companies. One was a yachtie and was keen on visiting New Zealand. We had a long talk with them before eventually retiring at around 8pm.