Tsukuba Marathon

Last Sunday my Australian friend from Tokyo ran in the Tsukuba Marathon. In fact, she ran the whole 42kms! Wow!

It was her first marathon so my husband and I decided to go and cheer her on. At first we went to the half way point - I was SO surprised that there were thousands of runners. I thought it would be really easy to find my friend, but my eyes began to hurt from scanning all the faces of the runners as they went past. Chris found me rather than me finding her!

Next we moved to a bridge overlooking Nishi Odori about 5km from the end. I was really moved to watch the runners who'd been going for the last 5 hours or so. There were all ages and all kinds of body shapes - some people looked okay and some people could barely walk. Anyway, it was truly amazing. Next year please go watch and cheer the athletes on - it is okay if you don't know them!

This year the weather wasn't very good, but thankfully the rain held off. You can't see it in the photos but the trees along the main roads are really beautiful right now. A scenic marathon!

Here are some pictures of Chris, and a link to her blog, too. I feel really ashamed - not only does she put a lot of effort into running, but she writes Japanese. And yes, it is the same friend who wrote the 'My English Organizer' schedule book. Hmmm, I REALLY need to make my own effort ...

http://blog.livedoor.jp/newleaves2/

Xmas flowers

It is a little early for Christmas, but today Megumi gave me this lovely table arrangement. If you come to the Takezono classroom, you can see it for real.

Actually, this arrangement is a sample. On Tuesday December 19th, we are going to have a flower arranging class in English and we'll make an arrangement similar to this one. The market will give us the flowers in season, so it might not be exactly the same. If you'd like join, the class will be from 10:15am. Drop me an email if you're interested :)

I really can't believe that Xmas is 'just around the corner'. Each year the time seems to pass faster and faster. I really have to hurry up and make my traditional Xmas fruit cake!