Putaansuu Post: Tokyo Marathon 2011

William loves to run. So, I thought I'd take him up to see the Tokyo Marathon, since it was such a fine day. I had planned to take him up to the Asakusa turn-around, but since we were running late in the morning, we got off the train earlier at Ginza, so we could watch the runners going north, and then the front-runners on their way back south (on the same street).

Who says there aren't colorful people here in Japan?

William and I got a respectable place to watch the race from.

We met this man,Kato-san on the train. Aimee (his daughter) was so cute singing the ABC song with us. I asked if he was going to the Tokyo marathon. He was, and was getting off at the same station as we were. So, we followed him. We didn't know of anyone running the race to cheer for, so we held up posters for Kato's boss, who was running the race. At one point, I realized I was holding the sign (in kanji) upside-down.

The guy in the glasses has patches on his neck. This is a herbal application to the lymph glands. I had jokingly said they might be nicotine patches, since so many people smoke here. It was a good guess that there probably isn't a place to smoke on the marathon route. Thankfully, I had Kato-san next to us, who could tell me what they were. About one in every 30 Japanese runners had them. The Japanese take the lymph system very seriously. I get a massage here that helps the lymph system.

I told Wm that we'd know when the fastest runners were coming, 'cause there would be the media (photographer) truck, and there it is!

Amazingly, there were remote TV cameras on these trucks. Wow, times have changed.

The masses hit. We saw a couple of Santas, many Pikachus, Uncle Sam (it was a Japanese guy), weird hats of many kinds, Pooh beer, a salary-man (businessman, but not as sophisticated, according to Kato... but he was running in a business suit), many folks dressed as bees, it was an assortment!