September 15th/16th - Toya 2 Day March
I was at first confused as to why it was called the 2 Day March since it penciled into our schedule only for a Saturday morning. Truth behind the matter was soon revealed however. There are a variety of different routes you can choose to do over the 2 days, ranging from the 40km walk all around the lake down to a mere 5km (the route of which I forget). We had opted for the 13km walk from Toya-Onsen to Toya-mura and by opted I mean we had been entered in without any prior consultation. We were picked up bright and early at 8am Saturday morning by a man we had never met before, whom we still don’t know the name of.
Arrived in Onsen and reported to the start area where we were given our Toya Lake Staff hats by the mayor himself. Most the ‘racers’ were 40-80yr old couple,(Plus, as we were informed through the loudspeaker, a 91yr old man who had the honour of being the oldest here) or teams of School Children. Before the start of the race there we listened to the stirring words of the mayor, just to get us in the walking mood which was followed by a lesson on how not to poke other people with walking sticks, and finally a group stretching session. The latter of which I was laughing the whole way through, was trying to imagine a scene like this in England, it just wouldn’t happen.
We set off at a steady pace, moving through the pack as we did, trying to get into open ground so we could really show them the advantage of having longer legs. The time came and myself and our un-named friend started to run. I really wished I wasn’t wearing large walking boots and trousers at this point. 20 extremely warm and sweaty minutes later we had lost Craig and Michiko (our other team member) so we stopped on the roadside to have a refreshing tomato and some boiled corn. Interesting choice of race side refreshment for sure - all I really wanted was a glass of water. But apparently everyone brings their own so there is no need, but I didn’t have my own damn it! Craig eventually caught up, by now looking great in his wifebeater and walking boots. Michiko seemed to have picked up a friend on the way, Aya-chan, who claimed she was 12, despite looking at a push 10. Aya was a good fun tho, and provided much entertainment along the way. We ran for a bit more before we started to take a more leisurely pace, collecting conkers along the way and just generally messing around. Aya, like every Japanese child it seems was a big fan of piggy back rides, which she requested whenever she got tired. Then feeling refreshed she’d jump off and run into the distance expecting us to catch up immediately. And then when we did denied us any water! Craig was quite persistent asking tho, their back and forth of “Mizu?” “Yada!” went on for quite some time. As we moved up through the other walkers we were followed by a hail of “herro” from every schoolchild. Made me chuckle everytime
The race finished at the Mizu no Eki right on the beach, where everyone had settled in to have a BBQ in the morning mist, was an amazingly still day, so peaceful. Entertainment whilst we were eating was provided, with some curious Japanese Opera played over the speakers, followed by the incredibly cool Yosoko dance team (More on that another time) Our un-named friend had got us all set up on the beach with a mountain of meat behind him. I have to say, BBQs in Japan are so much more fun than in England. There’s no really thick pieces of meat that require any skill to get right, its all small, incredibly tasty bits of beef, pork, and anything else really. You all just get stuck in, sitting around the fire, cooking your own stuff and eating straight off the grill with our chopsticks. Its brilliant. We were the last group of people on the beach, think we were eating (and then drinking) for a good 3hours! We’d been invited to go watch Judo practice at the High School but by this point I was getting a bit tipsy so thought it was best if I didn’t meet my work colleagues for the first time that day. Instead we said our goodbyes, had a quick play on the swing, then headed off home, ready for a well deserved nap!
Please check out the photography section for all my photos of the day! Click here for a link to the photo album for the day.
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