My flight from LAX out to Narita International Airport was at noon. The drive out to the airport was painfully slow. I didn't want to get to the airport too early so I ended up being stuck in most of the morning work traffic. It brought back old memories since it was my old commute when work used to be out near LAX.
For this trip, I prepaid for parking at the 405 Airport Parking Structure via SpotHero. It was located off of La Cienaga Blvd just North of Century Blvd. The place was packed to the gills, I did not come across an empty parking space until I got up to the 7th floor. The space was probably only open because it was a very small compact spot. It was a good thing that I drove a Mini Cooper! There were many cars parked throughout the structure outside of a marked parking spot.
When I took the elevator down to the ground floor, there was a long line of people waiting for a shuttle to the airport. Some people got tired of waiting and actually ordered a taxi or Uber/Lyft. I think it took a full 30 minutes before the next shuttle appeared.
My flight this time was with American Airlines out of terminal 4. I found it somewhat interesting that we didn't fly out of Tom Bradley International Terminal since it was a code-share with JAL. I checked in online so, I was called to the podium to scan in my passport. This was important as our flight was using facial recognition technology for the boarding process. There was no need to scan in boarding passes as the camera will match your face to all of the passports that were scanned in during check-in. If there's a match, it'll display a green check-mark and your seat assignment. Pretty cool.
It was a long but smooth direct flight. I napped here and there in between the 4 movies that I saw for the duration of the flight. The first movie that I saw was Bohemian Rhapsody. It was definitely a movie that I've been wanting to see for a while. I can see why it was nominated for Best Picture. The movie didn't just rely on the nostalgia of their music, but the acting and storytelling was really well done!
Movie #1: Bohemian Rhapsody
Meal #1: Beef over rice
The second movie that I watched was A Simple Favor. This was also one that I've been wanting to watch since I'm a fan of Blake Lively. She played a very interesting, mysterious, sexy, foul-mouthed character in this one. I didn't care too much for Anna Kendrick's character, however I did liked the interactions between her and Lively's character. I liked how the movie ended which I thought was clever and hilarious.
Movie #2: A Simple Favor
Snack box
The third movie that I watched was Searching. Once again, another movie that I wanted to watch but never got the chance. It was definitely an unique movie basically about the pros and cons with using social media to stay connected with family, friends, and acquaintances. It primarily focused on Facebook. Most of the movie was shot as if you're looking at the computer screen giving it a first person perspective. The story was pretty predictable, but the acting was good and believable.
Movie #3: Searching
Are we there yet?
The fourth and final movie that I saw was White Boy Rick. This movie was based on a true story about drugs, guns, and the tough life of living in Detroit back in the 80's. I thought it was an okay movie with good acting. However the story went off on too many tangents with some of them being left as loose ends. I'm not a fan of loose ends.
Movie #4: White Boy Rick
Meal #2: Fried rice
Friday 3/1
I landed at terminal 2 of Narita International Airport at about 4:30 pm local time. After getting off of the plane, it was time to go through immigration and customs inspection. I was pretty tired from the flight, but I think you need to fill out a form for both before getting in line. After that, I got in line for currency exchange. It was going to be a short trip and I had a very tight budget, so I only exchanged 100 USD for ¥10850. The value of the yen has dropped since I last visited back in 2014. I mainly needed it to load money on my Suica so I could use it on the bus and subway.
Once I got my money changed, I headed over to bus stop #2 to take The Access Narita bus over to the Tokyo Station. You don't need to pre-purchase a bus ticket. You can get in line and pay as you board. It was only ¥1000 for the one-way trip. That was much cheaper than taking the JR Narita Express (NEX) for ¥3200 like I did the last time. I took the NEX last time because they had a deal that gave you bonus yen bundled with a Suica. Apparently that deal no longer exists.
It was a pretty nice smooth bus ride over to Tokyo Station. We were dropped off at the Yaesu-dori arrival bus stop just East of the station. From there, I walked over to the station and tried to get over to the Marunouchi side. It took me a while to find the corridor that takes you to the other side which was at the Northern end of the station. From the station, it was a few blocks North on Daimyokoji over to my hotel.
Tokyo Station map
Tokyo Station
For the duration of my trip, I stayed at the Hotel Villa Fontaine Otemachi. The check-in process was really easy via the kiosk. All of the employees working at the front desk can speak English. One of them helped walk me through the process. The machine will need to scan your passport before issuing you your room key.
Hotel Villa Fontaine Otemachi
Elevator
The room was pretty much the same exact layout as the room that I had at the Shinjuku Washington Hotel, the place where I stayed the last time I was in Tokyo. After getting unpacked and situated, I took a shower and went to sleep. I was pretty exhausted.
Room
Saturday 3/2
The last time I ran the Tokyo Marathon back in 2014, the expo was held at the Tokyo Big Sight. This time it was held at an outdoor venue in Odaiba which was near Tokyo Big Sight just South of the Daiba Station. It was scheduled to open at 11 am, so I timed my trip getting over to Odaiba at a little before the opening with enough of a cushion for the off chance that I get lost getting there. After getting ready to head out, I first stopped in at the 7-Eleven across the street to buy some drinks and snacks in case I get hungry.
Drinks and snacks from 7-Eleven
It was a short walk from my hotel over to Kanda Station. Before going through the gates to the platform, I first had to load my Suica. I then waited for the Yamanote Line clockwise train. I took that over to Shimbashi Station. Then I transferred over to the Yurikamome Line heading for Toyosu. I got off at Daiba Station.
They had volunteers stationed there holding signs on where to go. Since I was there early, I decided to go take some touristy photos before heading over to the expo. Just North of the station, they had a small scale copy of the Statue of Liberty. Behind the statue was the Rainbow Bridge and the Tokyo skyline.
Statue of Liberty
Rainbow Bridge
After taking a few quick photos, I started heading back South towards the expo. There were many interesting buildings to see along the way. There was also the Flame of Freedom that was ignored by pretty much everyone. I'm not sure why. I believe it was donated by the French.
Flame of Freedom
Then I arrived at the Unicorn Gundam standing in front of the Diver City Tokyo Plaza. Everyone was taking a picture in front of it. I wonder how long it will take before we have one of these robots fully functional? Off to the side was Bumblebee. The movie wasn't that good, but it was still cool to see.
Unicorn Gundam
Bumblebee
Before heading into the expo, I found a spot to sit down and eat the tsubuan (red bean paste) danish and drink the green tea that I had bought at 7-Eleven. Even though it was about 15 minutes before 11 am, there was already a very long line of marathon participants all queued up, anxiously waiting to get inside.
Marathon expo
They were controlling how many people enter at any given time, so that it doesn't become a madhouse and over-flood the volunteers handing out bibs and shirts. Once I went inside, I went to my assigned booth 15. There they put a tracking bracelet on my wrist after they checked my passport to ensure that I was the registered runner. They also took a photo of me without my glasses.
Bracelet
After getting my bib and bracelet, I picked up my race shirt. The design was pretty clean and simple on a white shirt, but the picture on the front was kind of weird. It looked to be headless runners. :)
Race shirt
Back of race shirt
Fellow Taiwanese
Even with them controlling the inflow of people, it was super crowded inside the expo tent especially in the first official merchandise area. I could not get close to the t-shirts to even consider purchasing any of them. You were literally swimming through a sea of humanity!
When I made it to the secondary official merchandise area, you actually could take the line to bypass the area. I checked it out and decided on buying just a pair of gloves for ¥900. When I was in line to pay for it, I noticed that most of the other people in line were buying cookies stamped with the marathon logo. I'd rather spend money on something that I could use instead of consume. To each their own.
Gloves
Did I mention that it was crowded inside the expo? It was so crowded all throughout the expo that once I got outside to the food vendors, I was more than ready to leave! I did make it out of there with a bottle of Asahi Dry Zero Spark alcohol-free beer and a bag of potato chips.
Expo haul
After getting back to Kanda Station, I was pretty hungry. I started looking at some of the restaurants just outside of the station and decided to eat lunch at Ramen Hidakaya. The display outside had a special item, nikusoba, that was not on the regular menu. So I ordered that and some edamame. The food was pretty decent and cheap. Unfortunately however I did find a lipstick stain on the glass of water that they gave me. I guess I'm not much of a germophobe when it comes to food, so I shrugged it off and drank from the side without the stain.
Ramen Hidakaya
Niku soba and edamame
After returning to my room, I noticed that housekeeping had left me a bag of clean towels as I had the 'do not disturb' magnet on my door. I then added the magnet that I would like to reuse my towels so they wouldn't keep leaving me new towels the next day. I relaxed a bit and watched some TV. Every now and then, they'll have some shows on that were in English.
Eventually I went through all of the stuff that I received at the packet pick-up and expo. Per the usual, I threw out the flyers for other events and various race products. I then laid out my flat runner to make sure I had everything for tomorrow's marathon. The weather forecast looked promising with the rain potentially holding out until later in the afternoon. We might just luck out and get a dry race.
Flat runner
I eat at Yoshinoya about once a week back home in the States and I never got a chance to check one out the last time I was here, so I decided to go to one on this trip. One of my running buddies told me that it's much better in Japan. Boy was he right! I went to the closest one which was the Yoshinoya located right next to Kanda Station. After getting seated and looking over the menu, I ordered their Gyuu Gyuu teishoku. It was the beef and grilled beef rib meal. It came with a bowl of miso soup and a bowl of rice. For the most part it tasted the same as in America, but the quality was better. It was quite an affordable meal at ¥690.
Gyuu Gyuu teishoku
Sunday 3/3
I had trouble sleeping and/or staying asleep. I pretty much laid there wide awake for several hours before I finally needed to get up and get ready. I checked the weather forecast and it took a turn for the worse. It now showed that it would start raining right at the start of the race and continue for the duration. I grabbed both my rain poncho and mylar blanket before heading out for the train station.
While waiting for the train at Kanda Station, I ended up talking to a couple of ladies from Taiwan that were also heading to the race. They were wearing clothing with the Taiwanese flag. I guess it was good for me to practice my Taiwanese. From Kanda, I took the Chuo Line over to Shinjuku Station. All throughout the Shinjuku Station, they had stationed volunteers at various spots with signs directing you to your entrance gate. I was assigned gate 2. It might have been the easiest gate to get through as I believe it was for runners without baggage. There were no lines. Since we weren't allowed to bring in a handheld bottle, I bought and wore a running vest to carry my stuff. The first few volunteers saw that it obviously didn't have a bladder, so they waved me through. However the last volunteer asked to inspect the vest. After doing so, he put a 'passed inspection' sticker on the vest.
Shinjuku Station map
Gate 2
I walked around the starting area a little bit and decided to get in line for one of the portapotties. The shortest line was for a Japanese style toilet. I haven't used one of these in a while. They even had a step-pump to the side for you to press to flush the toilet. I think America needs to step up its portapotty game! :)
Since the starting blocks didn't open until 7:45 am, I found a spot to wait. While waiting, I was fortunate enough to bump into a couple of Marathon Maniacs. I was waiting for one of my friends, but she got stuck in the baggage check area and it was starting to rain. I decided to head to the starting blocks before it got too crazy and congested like it did last time. Fortunately we were able to spot each other out on the course several times during the race.
Pic from Seth
The race started at 9:10 am, I didn't cross the starting mat until about 10 minutes later. I started the race off feeling pretty good, but I made sure not to step on the gas. Eventually it felt pretty warm with the vest and rain poncho on, so at around the 10k mark, I pulled over and took off the poncho as well as the gloves. The vest was actually quite bothersome to wear. Also it didn't do a good job of holding my stuff. I eventually dropped my Shotbloks and dropped my salt tabs. Maybe I'll look into wearing a second belt. I felt pretty hungry by mile 8 and my pace started to really drop by mile 10. Between miles 12 and 13, I decided to pull over for a toilet break as I was really struggling mentally and it felt like a good time as any to go empty the bladder. It would turn out that the portapotties weren't located very close to the course. It was down an alley at the Meiji Elementary School. Oh well, when you gotta go, you gotta go! They actually warn you repeatedly that you cannot urinate at any random location or you will be cited and fined.
Back to the race. I guess I wasn't moving fast enough to generate heat as I felt increasingly colder by the mile. I finally decided to put back on the gloves and the poncho. It got bad enough where my thumbs were numb and I couldn't twist open anything. I had to ask one of many volunteers lining the course to open stuff for me.
Finish line
Finish: 5:16:05
Click here for my Garmin data.
The last time that I ran this race back in 2014, I finished in 4:15:57. I took over an hour longer this time, so I was a bit disappointed with my finishing time. After I had more time to think about it, I became more accepting of the finishing time as I was really struggling with the weather and persevered. It took a while and a hot shower for me to thaw out!Relive 'Tokyo Marathon'
The post race organization was pretty top notch as they funneled finishers to different locations based off of their bib color. The post race process was very efficient with very little congestion. I got my finisher medal and a finisher towel. Then that was followed by volunteers handing out fleece jackets. To shield us from the elements, we were also given a polyester poncho. They helped us put on both. We were also given a bag of post race food and drinks. From there I walked over to my designated post race location which was the Otemachi train station. I went down the escalator to get out of the rain for a little bit. Once I got my stuff in order, I went back out and started heading back to my hotel. Along the way back, a Japanese guy who was there to watch his friends run the marathon started talking to me in Japanese. I had to use my very limited Japanese to tell him that I didn't speak much Japanese. He was able to speak enough English to ask me questions about the race. From speaking with him, it would seem that not too many people took the no-baggage option.
Finisher towel
Finisher medal
Post race snack
I was pretty wiped-out after I got back to my hotel room. I never went back out for food or anything. I just ate what was given out post-race and took a long nap after taking a nice hot shower.
Monday 3/4
To be honest, I was still very tired when I woke up in the morning to get ready for a day at Tokyo Disneyland. If it weren't for the fact that I didn't go the last time I was in Tokyo and also that my friends were there, I would've been very tempted to just veg out in my room! Once I get myself ready and out the door, I pretty much went on autopilot as I was very mentally exhausted. I underestimated the rain as it was quite windy to be wearing shorts. I was pretty much a soggy wet mess by the time I had reached the station to catch the JR Keiyo Line. Instead of saving a few hundred yen, I could've stayed dry by taking the train from Kanda Station down to Tokyo Station. I took the train over to Maihama Station. Once I got off of the train, I bought a 1 day pass for the Disney Resort Line for ¥650. I could've bought a single ride ticket, but I wasn't sure if I was going to visit both parks.
Disney Resort Line 1 day pass
My friends recommended that I needed to visit Tokyo DisneySea in the daytime if there was a chance that I was only going to visit 1 park. They told me that Tokyo Disneyland was pretty much the same as the one back home, so DisneySea it is! The Disney Resort Line ran in a counterclockwise direction, so I rode almost a full loop over to Tokyo DisneySea. Once I got off, I went to the ticket booth to buy a 1 day ticket. Fortunately there wasn't a long line to wait in for tickets. There were only 2 ladies in front of me. At ¥7400 for a 1 day pass, park tickets were significantly cheaper here than for Disneyland Anaheim or Walt Disney World!
Tokyo DisneySea 1 day pass
After going in, but before heading inside the park, I first took what has become my customary post-race finisher medal photo at a Disney park. It was rainy and rather windy, so it took quite a few attempts before I got a satisfactory photo. After taking the photo I threw on my marathon poncho before heading to my first ride.
Post race medal at Tokyo DisneySea
Here's a list of the rides that I went on:
- Toy Story Mania!
- Raging Spirits
- Tower of Terror
- Aquatopia
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
- Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull
Before getting in line for my first ride, I first stopped by the Tower of Terror ride to pick up a Fast Pass. My first ride was Toy Story Mania! It turned out to be a 2 hr wait. I was somewhat tired and was waiting for my friends to show up, so I took the time to power down mentally. The ride was identical to the ones back at Anaheim and Orlando. I thought there was much more to see once the line got inside, but other than that the only thing different was that the 3D glasses were purple instead of yellow. I scored okay and well enough to be the high score in the vehicle, but I was a bit rusty.
Toy Story Mania!
After I was done with the ride, I headed over to the New York Deli to meet up with my friends. They wanted me to help them eat some snacks as they bought a bunch of snacks, but only wanted the souvenir containers. I'm always game for eating unwanted food. :) One of the alien mochi was chocolate and the other was strawberry. The Pixar ball was lemon flavored.
After we were done eating, we headed out for some rides. We walked through the Mysterious Island and the Mermaid Lagoon to get to the Lost River Delta to go ride the Raging Spirits. All along the way, we kept an eye out for the golden Mickey Spots Statues. I believe that there were a total of 35 in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Tokyo Disneyland. If there were 35 of them, we only found a fraction of them.
Mysterious Island
Mermaid Lagoon
Before getting in line for the Raging Spirits, we went to go get our Fast Passes for Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull. I thought the Raging Spirits ride was pretty cool especially with the steamy environment and the 360 loop, but it was a really short ride which reminded me of Goofy's Flight School ride.
Raging Spirits
After the ride, we walked over to the courtyard at the Arabian Coast to eat lunch at the Casbah Food Court. My friends said that the curry here was good. They were controlling the influx of people going inside to order food. However there were a lot of people in the dining area without food already staking claim to tables. Fortunately we were able to find an available table just as a group was leaving. I ordered their chicken curry which was indeed good curry and perfect for a cold rainy day!
Chicken curry at Casbah Food Court
Fortress Explorations
I then separated from my friends to go use my Fast Pass to ride the Tower of Terror. I love this ride at Orlando and Paris as well as the Guardians of the Galaxy version in Anaheim. The background story for this ride was a bit different. The hotel was cursed because Hightower stole a sacred idol. You were presented with the story prior to riding the elevator. The ride itself was pretty much identical however for this version, you wear a shoulder harness in addition to the lap belt. The shoulder harness actually made the ride less thrilling as you're really buckled into your seat.
Tower of Terror
SS Columbia
After the ride, I met up with my friends at the Aquatopia ride. I would equate this to Mater's Junkyard Jamboree ride in Disney California Adventure, but there's no singing and it's on water. There wasn't a line to get on the ride probably because it's somewhat of a bad idea to ride it when it's cold, rainy, and windy! :)
Aquatopia
The next ride we went on was the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride. I haven't been on this ride since back in the 80's when it was still around at Disneyland Anaheim. I guess it's not a favorite of mine since you just sit and watch through one of the portholes. The only thing you could control was the direction of the light.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Next we used our Fast Pass for Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull. The ride was pretty much identical to the Indiana Jones Adventure ride at Disneyland Anaheim. Instead of Sallah, it's a South American tour guide named Paco that will guide you. This ride was never one of my favorites as I always felt that the ride was unnecessarily herky jerky. Another difference with the Anaheim version is that there's a ride photo, so smile for the camera!
Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull
The only other ride that my friends said that I had to ride was the Journey to the Center of the Earth. However the line was hours long and we were all pretty tired, so we called it a day and turned our attention to finding those golden Mickey statues as well as souvenir shopping. We checked out several places including McDuck's Department Store, but I was unsuccessful at finding a decent shirt commemorating the 35th anniversary.
McDuck's Department Store
Eventually we exited the park through Hotel MiraCosta. My friends wanted to check on the availability of reservations for dining at one of the restaurants, Oceano.
Hotel MiraCosta
We then took the Disney Resort Line over to Ikspiari to check out the Disney Store as well as to have dinner. They weren't selling much apparel at this Disney Store, but they did have a pretty elaborate Marvel display that had some pretty cool items.
Disney Store at Ikspiari
For dinner, my friends took me to Toraji. They knew that I love meat and wanted me to check it out. I was very thankful that they treated me since they also knew that I was really tight on money with this trip being pretty much unplanned. I really did not expect to be picked in the drawing to run the marathon, but somehow I got in. I really owe them one for showing me around DisneySea as well.
The food here was a la carte which you ordered through the tablet. The food will then be sent to you from the kitchen on a conveyor belt to your table. You'll need to grab your food in a timely fashion or it will beep at you to hurry up. The meat were all uncooked, so you'll need to cook them on the grill in the center of the table.
Toraji
Enticing us with their finest cuts of meat... look at that marbling!
Seaweed soup and a bowl of rice
Complimentary dessert
After dinner, we walked over to the nearby Bon Voyage for one last chance at buying some more souvenir. I almost bought a Pixar Playtime t-shirt. However I didn't because thankfully I remembered that I have way too many t-shirts at home already! I literally do not have any more space at home!
Bon Voyage
35th Anniversary Merchandise
I then parted ways with my friends and headed to the Maihama Station to catch the JR Keiyo train back to my hotel. When I arrived at the Tokyo Station, I kind of got lost in the station. I ended up taking an extra loop around the restaurants. I finally made it out after finding the stairs that took me outside. The walk back from the train station seemed a bit further.
Tuesday 3/5
Despite a difficult time with the marathon, I enjoyed my time in Tokyo. As with all good things, it has to eventually come to an end. As check-out time approached, I took a shower and got my stuff all packed up for the trip home.
Mirror above the sink doesn't fog up!
What would a marathon trip be without having a meal at a McDonald's?! It would feel incomplete! Before catching the Access bus over to Narita International Airport, I stopped in the McDonald's in the Tokyo Station. It was pretty convenient as the bus stop was just outside. With my limited Japanese, I was able to order the ebi burger meal for ¥720. The cashier knew enough English for me to complete the transaction. It turned out that they didn't accept credit cards. Thankfully they did accept payment with my Suica. The food came out very quickly. I found an empty spot at one of the counters to enjoy my meal.
Ebi burger meal
After eating my meal, I got in line at bus platform number 7 for the Access bus to the airport. The ride was ¥1000 once again. I think it's a great deal however unfortunately for me, a huge Australian sat in the seat next to me. His friend sounded American and they were rather obnoxious with their conversation. Hey! Some us can understand your crass language! I have found that the Japanese were always rather quiet when taking public transit. I got off of the bus at terminal 2.
Narita Airport
I ended up passing a few hours near the check-in area by playing games on my tablet. When lunchtime rolled around, I got up to find the restroom as well as a place to eat. Both were located up the escalator. I decided on eating at Cafe & Dining N's Court. They had a nice display with food samples near the entrance as well as menus with pictures. When I got to the register, I ordered the shoyu ramen with a mini negitoro don for ¥1328. It was on the pricey side, but it was pretty decent food for airport food.
Shoyu ramen and mini negitoro don
It was pretty easy getting through security check, customs, and immigration before heading over to my gate. While waiting to board my flight home, I ended up talking to a couple of Mexican nationals from Reno, NV that had also run the Tokyo Marathon. The guy had just completed all 6 World Marathon Majors. As he should be, he was really proud of earning that medal! He even told me that he was selected in the regular drawing for the London Marathon!
Unfortunately the inflight entertainment system wasn't working properly for everyone! Everything you tried to watch just kept stuttering. They rebooted a few screens, but that didn't fix the problem. That was a bummer as there were a few movies that I wanted to watch. It was still usable to play games, so I played a few games of sudoku. Eventually I opted for sleep, waking up every now and then to eat. One thing I noticed was that almost all of the Japanese passengers opted for a pancake breakfast instead of the Japanese breakfast salmon meal. :)
Japanese breakfast salmon
When I landed at LAX, it was a bit strange to go through customs and immigration in terminal 4 instead of Tom Bradley International Terminal. The lines were much shorter. The CBP agent was a bit skeptical that I had no items to declare. I told him that I was only in Japan briefly to run the Tokyo Marathon, so he waved me through.
As I went outside and waited a long while for the shuttle to the parking structure, I ended up bumping into those same runners that I was talking to prior to boarding the plane. It would turn out that we were both parked in the same structure. We continued our conservation about running and marathon related injuries. :)
