Day 1 in Myoko Kogen

After a brief stop in Nagano I was on the new train straight to Myoko Kogen. I had butterflies thinking back to what the race director told me about the snowy conditions. I have no experience really training in deep snow so I doubt I brought the gear to match the weather we will face at the Championship. I thought to myself well it must not be too bad; there isn’t much snow in Nagano which was pretty close. The snow slowly built higher and higher as we reached the ski resort town of Myoko.

 As you can see the snow was packed over 2 meters high already and this was a few days out from the race so no telling how this story could end. I headed out to try my hand at the course. Mr. Yasushi, my new friend and staff for the Championship warned me that the course would not be a good idea to train on this day. He was right. I spent most of the time pulling my legs out of the snow rather than running so I knew at that moment this would be a very tough race. More of a challenge than even a fast marathon due to the fact that it will be mostly climbing throughout the course and not to mention the wind! I’m guessing after trying out the course if the conditions remain, it would take the winner somewhere in the ball park of 1:20-1:35 to finish this 15-16k course. So for all of you math minded folks, that’s around 9 minutes per mile or slower! I know that sounds outrageously slow, but think about it, we’ll be mashing through deep snow and after a few miles of running at such a high heart rate your body depletes and 10 minute miles will begin to feel fast. Snow shoeing is much different than normal running obviously so that adds to the time as well. Your gait is completely different, a bit wider in stance and also the added weight from the snow shoe itself as well as the accumulated snow on them.

I made my way to Myoko and found myself in an Ancient Japanese style Spa Inn. At the door you must change into these slippers, which of course did not fit my big feet and kind of made me look like a woman in high heels. When you enter bathrooms you have another set of slippers to slip into. The spa area was quite unique. You have a hot shower and afterwards you can hop into a natural hot spring built into the hotel. After breakfast I usually found myself hanging out in front of the hot lamp they had. Being that the hotel is Ancient Japanese style the building and rooms are heated with lamps and stationary heaters so hall ways and bathrooms were quite cold.

After my workout on the course I headed into town to try some of the chocolates and snacks out. I came back with a mixture of things as you can see. I found that the Japanese chocolate was excellent. In fact, I was shocked because you never hear about Japanese chocolate in America.

The mountains seen from the course are nothing less than spectacular. Myoko-San, the biggest of the mountains in the area can be seen pretty clearly. At one point on the course you get an even better glimpse of the mountain, which I will try to post sometime if I can. So far my impressions of Japan are that the people are more than accommodating. Very nice and the service you receive at hotels/restaurants/stores is unmatched by any other country I’ve visited. The streets are very clean and even the airport bathrooms I was quite surprised were clean. No matter where you are, airport bathrooms are usually nasty, so bravo Japan!

I closed out my first night in Myoko with a nice Japanese style dinner with foods specifically from the mountain region of Myoko. The mountain veggies definitely had a taste unlike anything I’ve tried. In all, it was pretty good no complaints. Not a fan of the raw shrimp however. It had a very shocking sensation once you bit into it! Sashimi was different than I’ve had before. A lot bigger pieces than I’m used to, but I actually liked that aspect and the fact that you get a better taste for the raw fish. Next on the agenda will be checking more of the town out and trying to find some Japanese gear hopefully…

 

  At the moment I'm very happy to be in Myoko Kogen, I feel I' am getting the chance to see Japanese culture at its purest. The town is very old fashioned and I was very lucky to find internet a miles East of Myoko Kogen! Definitely accomplishing many tasks on my bucket list while here..