For the last 2 weeks, we’ve been running across Japan. We ran next to the coast from Fujiyama to Tokyo, in between we will stop to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After that we will run in the Alps to finally arrive in Tokyo, we hope to cover around 3000-3400 km.The first week was a week of adaption, we had to adapt ourselves to the distance that has to be done every day, pay attention to eat the correct food, (we have to eat a massive load), study the map correctly and GPS to find our way easily, the bicycle (last week we had a flat tire and we had to stop at the shop to fix it) we also had to adjust with our day to day routine.
But the most difficult thing was to find a place to sleep each night. For the first week, we installed our tent nearly anywhere but we understood quickly that we wanted a proper shower every night 😀. Now, we decide to sleep at national camping sites through out japan, but the most challenging thing is to find some in our route. This week was a better week, we managed a better nutrition, we manage better runs, breaks and we managed to find camp sites…
But this week the heat was clearly against us….It was so hot that we struggled to walk….We almost thought that UAE was a better place to be! So, we just did what we could. At the end of the week, we just realize that we reached 500km, we were soo happy about our progress!
We reached our goal! We decided to celebrate our accomplishment with a relaxing day at Nagoya, we slept until 11h this morning. WOW!! What we appreciate the most is the Japanese hospitality; The way that they take care for others, day after day we are so impressed by this WONDERFUL country. The people stop to support us, to give us water, to offers us sleep overs at their homes, etc.
We feel soo privileged to be able to travel 50km day after day through this fascinating country. Next week, we hope to increase the distance a bit, the next major cities where we want to stop are Nara and Kyoto.
Once there, we will most probably take short breaks to enjoy the treasures the cities have to offer us. There is actually 2 typhoons going around Japan and we were able to experience the winds from the first typhoon.
We have learned that the La Nina phenomene ( a meterological phenomene that alters global weather, which brings extremely hot days in Japan and helps the development of typhoons) is the reason for the humid and warm weather we experienced last week.
We are slightly worried at the possibility that the typhoons start heading to the south of Japan ( even though there is no chance right now) it would ruin our running schedule and take a couple of days. Our bodies are fine, no wiggles or anything, so we are really pleased and impressed with that.
The only thing that we have to be really careful with is the amount of food that we have to eat and to rest enough to be able to stand everyday.
One km at a time we will arrived in Tokyo!
On and on!