From the Flatlands of Japan

Hello, All, from Fukagawa, Hokkaido, Japan,

I'm one month into my four month teaching exchange here in Fukagawa, heart of the rice paddy area of Hokkaido, the north island of Japan.

One of my goals while here is to recover some weekly mileage. With long-day schedules of work in the past months at home, and with short resolve, I let during-the-week runs slip and tried to keep up with longer pleasurable weekend trail mileage. My physio and chiropractor soon let me know that the weekend warrior thing is not a good idea. Who knew what didn't work for anyone else wouldn't work for me?

So, here I am in a large central interior valley of Hokkaido looking longingly at distant mountains through the office windows at my school. The mountains are scenic, but riddled with bamboo jungles, devil's claw and other unpassable shrubbery. So, I've been lacing up the street shoes and heading out into the countryside or around town three or four times a week.

Snow still dots the landscapes, temperatures are cool and weather is often windy with either high overcast or dark, closely looming clouds.

I am a day ahead of you. I can listen to CBC live on my office computer, no internet at the apt here, and hear last night's news live. That's a mindbender for me.

Yesterday was promising for weather, and I had an extra window of free afternoon time. So, for the first time this year I tried out running shorts, not tights, and the lovely light blue Fat Ass short sleeve shirt. I headed out for what I intended as a long run. I ran due west into the wind, to get that push out of the way. I ran over to the next town, Moseuchi, turned south and headed a few kilometers to the dike that runs along the Ishikari River. Left onto the dike, heading east back to home in Fukagawa. I was delighted to see the snow completely off the dike, and mostly off the bike path that parallels it. I had a wonderful run. I saw several huge hawks along the river, snow geese gleaning fields for last year's leftovers, and a few farmers here and lots of long, low plastic greenhouses with flats of the small rice plants already started and waiting for transplant into the paddies in the next month.

With predictable road and dike surfaces underfoot, and huge vistas of flat valley around me, the miles did not churn by as they do on trails. So, I had a wonderful run, albeit a shorter than desired one at 1 hour and 45 minutes. My long run wasn't all that much longer than the one hour tours of town or close-by farmland I've been doing.

I do, however, have my first sunburned nose and tan lines on my legs. I suspect there is not much of a protective ozone layer above the high overcast of clouds and occasional sun here.

I'm looking forward to milder weather here and am living vicariously through your mountain pictures on the site...

Rhonda