Sakurajima 1/2 Marathon & Onsen

Last Sunday I ran my first half marathon and besides the fact that the weather was cold and rainy I had a fantastic time. Maybe it was the beautiful scenery that compensated for the not so beautiful weather as the 21 kilometer course ran alongside both the Kagoshima Bay and Sakurajima, an active volcano in the Kagoshima Prefecture. Among the 3,300 runners in the race there were 9 foreigners running and if I remember correctly 6 of us were JET teachers.

During registration I met a friendly Japanese man who had volunteered to work the marathon so that he could practice speaking English with foreigners. We had a nice time chatting before the race and he was really helpful except for the mere fact that he mistakenly told my friends and me the wrong starting time for the race. He told us that the half started at 10:10 when really that was the time for the 10K race. The half actually started at 10:00 which meant that we started the race 10 minutes after everyone else. We had runners’ chips attached to our shoes so this didn’t effect our time, however when the 10K course and half marathon course split there was no one else in sight for about five minutes. I’m sure the spectators on the street had a good laugh at our expense. Oh, I finished the race with a time of 1 hour and 46 minutes. I’m already looking forward to running again soon. Afterward we went for a relaxing bath in a nearby onsen which, by the way, makes running any race way worth it.

Speaking of the onsen, I recently had the opportunity to experience the Japanese sand baths. If you can remember what it was like the to be buried in the sand on the beach as a kid then that’s pretty much what the sand onsen is like. The only difference is that little old ladies with shovels burry you under the sand that is really really hot and steamy. Signs are posted everywhere informing you that 15 minutes is about as long as you should bake yourself under the sand, but because I wanted a picture to post on my blog I waited for my friends to go back to the bath house and get the camera so they could take my picture. I was in the sand bath for over 20 minutes! I hope you like it.