Takanezawa Run, Nikko..

This week we were a little tired coming off of our vacation last week and it has been pretty busy at work recently. Originally we were thinking that we may not have much of anything this week for the blog. Actually I was looking forward to a simple post of "we did nothing". In the end we were able to accomplish enough for a small write up of what we could muster on Sunday.

In the morning the children had the Takanezawa run. It actually turned out to be a pretty big event. We figured that out when we went for registration and had to wait in a line to park. There were a number of events for people of all ages ranging from 1 km to a half marathon. The children competed with other children in their age group from all over. Both Liam and Colleen ran 1 km in separate races. When we registered we were given chips to put on the children's shoes. The chip allows the race organizers to get the exact time and position for all competitors.

Colleen's group was first. She had 81 children in her race 65 of which were in her class for competition. Her number was 2527, you can see her in the photo below. Only the 527 is showing. This was an action shot as she is running in the picture and you can see two children in front of her, one on the ground and the other in the process of ending up there. Fortunately no one got hurt and they eventually got up and finished the race.

The race started and finished from the same location and so the children did a big loop. We ran to the back side to cheer the children on and then went back and watched them finish. Colleen was able to finish 34th in her class.

Liam's group was a little bigger with 220 children 70 of which directly competed against him. The picture below is a where is Waldo photo...he is in there, if you look hard enough you can see him.

Liam was number 4060. He also had a good run. When he saw us on the back side cheering him on he sped up and passed a couple of other children. In his race the pace motorcycle fell down on the turn around corner and all the children had to run around him.

Amazingly Liam also finished #34 in his group. When we got the certificate with the stats on it of course it was all in Japanese. Kate and I looked for a number on the two certificates to determine their position. Since both said 34 I thought that must be the 34th annual race. We had to have someone tell us which number was the position, then we laughed because they were the exact same position in separate races. We were proud to watch them get out and do there best in the race.

When we were driving home from the race we could see the mountains in the distance with snow on them. Kate said we hadn't been to Nikko in a while so why don't we go. There was one temple in that area that we had not yet gone to see, so we decided to head there to see it. There is a famous carving of monkeys at Nikko in the see no evil hear no evil speak no evil pose. To date I had never been able to find it and thought it may be in the temple area we had not yet been. That was my goal for the trip, to see the carving. There are a lot of beautiful buildings with huge evergreen trees surrounding all the temples the trees really make the atmosphere of the Nikko temples.

This cluster of temples also seams to be a bit more colorful and ornate than the others we have seen.

And we did find the monkey carvings. Actually it was pretty easy to find as there was a wall of people taking pictures of it when we rounded the corner.

We also decided to stop at one of our favorite shops in the area. It is called Nikko Urushiya. The owners of the shop have always been very friendly to us and we try to stop in when we are in the area. Typically they invite us to sit and have coffee or tea and chat about whatever we can. About 90% Japanese 10% English and usually help from the children and the translator are required.

This time we all had Coffee, including the children, it was a bit of a special occasion for them as I usually do not allow them to drink it. They said it tasted funny and good at the same time. I told them enjoy it while you can cause it is going to be a while. After the coffee they let the children wear a dragon head costume for fun.

Both Liam and Colleen got to enjoy wearing the costume.

They also had the children try on an old Tokyo firefighter outfit. The owner used to be a firefighter in Tokyo and still had the clothing. He said he was a firefighter 20 years ago.

As usually we had a fun visit at the store and enjoyed hanging out and talking. I think we accidentally kept them past closing time. I believe they also enjoy visiting, especially with the children.

On the way home we decided we were hungry and should grab a quick bite. Trying to get the photo with Kernel Santa after Christmas made us think we should stop and try a KFC at least one time while we were in Japan, so we stopped at one on the way. There were a few menu items that were different and a few missing, but in general it was pretty much like eating at a US KFC. Not bad, but I don't figure we will stop again for the rest of our time here.

Have a good week..