Half day off, today. So I went to have a big lunch with my colleagues.
After that, I headed to Red-brick-warehouse in MM21, then this huge football was there !
There was a bar right of that big tent, and some people were drinking beer :)
My friend said, they will place a big screen here for World cup football games, so if you are interested in, come and watch games here!
Me? no interest in football….
It is raining from late last night…
Last night, I managed to bring my snowboard to a convinience store , to send it to the hotel in Aomori prefecture.
I am going to go snowboarding trip this weekend :)
This is a photo of last year’s snowboard trip to Mt.Hakkoda in Aomori.
Fortunately we had really nice weather and great view at that time.
We do backcountry snowboarding there once a year.
Usually, we need to walk 1 hour or more, to crime the Mt.Hakkoda. There are some routes to down that mountain.
Our guides are very efficient professional, so we aren’t lost our way.
However, most of the time, we have blizzard like this …
I hope we would have very nice weather this time, so I can take more beautiful photos and show you them .
Let’s pray for that ;)
I like to fashion myself as an avid runner, though the truth is the Tokyo winter has been less than kind this year, and waking up at 5:45 in the morning for me is a Herculean task. On some days the temperature dips below 0 with wind chill, and that’s as strong an argument as my lazy ass needs to stay inside by the space heater.
I live near Nerima, so the best places to run are Shakuji-koen, Hikarigaoka-koen and some of the parks in Wako-shi. They’re all easily identified on any map of Tokyo simply by virtue of the green blobs representing them. Green is quite rare on Tokyo maps.
Shakuji-koen has a nice ~1.75km loop around the main section of the lake, as well as a wooded area on one side of the lake (inside the main loop) that is about 700m each way. 6 laps around the lake would be a bit over 10k for anybody wanting to put in some distance in their free time, and the scenery is gorgeous all year around.
If you aren’t afraid to take a walk across the street, halfway around the lake you can head towards Tanashi and Hoya, where a couple more parks await about 5km or so away. For those who don’t mind running on main roads, there’s a long stretch from Ogikubo on the Ome-kaido road, and parallel to that, Inokashira-dori, which lead to Shinjuku and thereabouts.
The park at Hikarigaoka used to be a US base, so it’s a very clean, expansive and well-designed park. It’s mostly flat on the running surface, but there are hilly fields where families and friends hang out every day of the year, as well as near-weekly festivals and open market events. The track is 400 meters, and there is a larger jogging course that extends to about 2.9km, marked both on the ground and with signs so you don’t get lost. A baseball diamond is situated by the track.
If anybody is interested in running events in Japan, two great websites are Sports Entry and Runnet. Unfortunately they both are written in Japanese, so it might be difficult to navigate for some people. I don’t know of any English web sites that have as extensive a list of upcoming events as either of those two, but if you do just let me know in the comments. If you need help with the sites, you can email me.
Today is quarter-finals day of the largest women’s tennis tournament in Asia, taking place at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium in Shiubuya-ku. Defending champion Maria Sharapova and four-time winner champion Martina Hingis are both in action today as they remain on course for their possible semi-final showdown, which would take place tomorrow.
Play starts at 13:00 and tickets on the door are priced from 4000Yen.
Visit the Pan Pacific website for more info.
On Saturday I went snowboarding in Gala Yuzawa with a few friends. I had heard horror stories of 2 hour queues and packed pistes, but I never had to wait longer than a couple of minutes for a lift and the pistes were great.
We had the bonus of a beautiful sunny day, and of course there is plenty of snow: nearly 4 metres deep!
I’d definitely recommend heading up there. It’s 1.5hrs on the Joetsu Shinkansen from Tokyo or Ueno and Gala Yuzawa station is literally within the same building as the ski lifts.
A day trip (including train, lift pass and lunch) will only set you back 14,000Yen.
For more information, check out the official site and the latest conditions.
The Gala site also has a mobile phone version; go to http://www.gala.co.jp and choose your network.
Last weekend, my colleagues and I went skiing and snowboarding to Rusutsu Resort in Hokkaido .
It was really great place, we had a lot of powder snow every day :)
Here is a photo of souvenir to my friend. They are region-limited snacks.
“Baby star ramen”
(more…)
