Yohei Swamp/Pond in Sendai

Yesterday morning, I had a wonderful run to Yohei Numa (Swamp/Pond) Park in Sendai.  It is about 5 km north-east of Sendai Station (see the location given on this blog).  It centers around the water reservoir that was originally built by Suzuki Yohei - a local samurai in 1671.  He built a pond to solve the problem with the area's irrigation.  It was used for irrigation for about 300 years until the modern city water system was developed.

The park has about 800 meters E-W in length and 350 meters N-S in width area - mostly woody area in the north side and the swamp/pond in the south.

I entered it from a trail on the north-west side.

The trail on the swampy area of the western side was very muddy.

The western side of the pond seen from the southern shore.

There was a cute wooden bridge spanning the pond from south to north.

Looking towards west from the bridge.

The woody area to the north - many trees.

There were swans!

I counted thirty-three of them.  This was a great treat!

Oizumi and Wako Parks

This morning, I checked the map and decided to run to Oizumi Chuo Park and Wako Jurin Park.  These parks are right next to each other - Oizumi in Nerima Ward in Tokyo Prefecture and Wako in Saitama Prefecture.

The entrance to Oizumi Chuo Park at the southwest corner.

The map of the Oizumi Chuo Park.  It has a baseball field and a track.

The baseball field.

Across a street to the north - the Wako Park .

The map of Wako Jurin Park - north pointing down.  The grassy area of the above photo on the east side.

"Jurin" means "trees" - there are many of them.

Found plum blossom in the park - it means the spring is approaching.

There is a nice running track.

A soccer pitch inside the running track back in Oizumi Park - lawn was ruined.

A playground - but very few children at 9 in the cold morning.

The sign says - Tokyo Metropolitan District.  Crossing back towards home.

The elevated road seen in the back is Tokyo Gaikan (Outer Ring) Expressway.

This was one of the longest runs I took this year.  Got rained on a bit, but very enjoyable.

Nagoya Morning Walk and Run

I stayed two nights in Nagoya this week.

I enjoyed a walk around the Castle moat on Tuesday morning.

The view of the castle from my hotel room.

Some parts of the water surface of the moat was frozen.

There were birds in the moat.

On Wednesday morning, I had a bit of time to go for a run.  I went north from my hotel and back.

Shonai River bank.

Shiga Park - built at the former residence of Hirate Masahide.

A heron in a river.

A Jizo shrine by the hotel.

My hotel's windows were getting cleaned.

Again, my time in Nagoya was short, but it was great to walk/run to explore the area.

Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon 2015

On Sunday, I participated in Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon.

I've heard that this race was a very fast one for the course is very flat.  It was very well attended - over 12,000 runners in this 69th annual race.

Runners warming up before the race.

Runners lining up - we were grouped by self-declared finishing time at Marugame Stadium.

At the starting line.

After finishing.

The award ceremony - the winner finished it with the course record of 59 min. 47 sec!

The course of the half marathon.

The race is very impressive - one of the best organized run I've every run.

Miyakojima Visit

I had a very short stay at a lovely island of Miyako-jima.

A pair of Shisa made of shells greeted us at the airport.

The port - the brand new 3,540m-long Irabu Bridge is seen on the left.

Higash-Hennazaki penninsula.

A German Cultural Village by the point where a German ship sank in 1873.

Bougainvillea blossoms everywhere.

Miyakojima Mamoru-kun, traffic accident prevention doll.

Ikema Ohashi Bridge.

One of many vending machines had local PET bottled drinks - strange the two middle ones are the same drink, but the prices are different.

A&W restaurant at the airport - good American food.