Run into the City

Life can't always be Mountains and Flowers...

So this time a run was made into the City.

Mind you, it was also a run with a mission.

This pix is at Momochi Beach, just 4K to the east from Alishan.

A very popular place for beach volleyball, beach soccer, wake boarding (using a tow-rope), noisy jet skies, doggy walking, music festivals and..... 

Swimming? No way, the water is still too cold and the quality is so-so. But all are improving. 

In Japan the month of May has Boys Festival.

Part of this event is Flying Carp Flags. Of course in the City they are far and few, but at the country side we can see plenty of them. Big surprise to find one here at the beach.

They are always colorful and tell us Spring is here.

"Our" Hilton Thing with next to it just partly visible: 

Yahoo Dome, home for the SoftBank Hawks.

Basebally Boys. 

Oops, couldn't by-pass these flowers...

and Cherry Blossom Festival Stalls at the entrance of Nishi Ko-en (park).

What do you think this place is?

The YU sign tells us it is a public bath-house.

Longlong time ago, when we were still living on Jan Haring we sometimes rode our bicycles to this YU.

(It's @ 7Ks from Alishan).

Too bad more and more friendly neighborhood YUs are disappearing.

If No Mountains, then can i show you some fishing boats?

These are squid boats moored during daytime at Nakahama Port. I luff to visit this area and look at the boats. In the background you can see the Highway Bridge across Fukuoka main harbor.

Nakahama port.

Down Town Fukuoka.

Sunday 11 AM...not much road traffic..

Now it's fun to come to town..

And this was the mission (at 9Ks from Alishan).

Proof i made it to the Yomiyuri Newspaper Photo Exhibition.

A closer look of Marijke's entry. 

3 cute owl chicks looking surprised at the outside world.

You'll have to ask Marijke for a decent digi....

Just some Sunday city pixs. 

This intersection is cornered by a " makkodonaldo"

Almost back (15Ks). 
This pix is facing westwards and showing Fukuoka Tower, our city's major sky mark, built just before we first arrived in Fukuoka in 1989. At that time the Tower was standing all by itself, no any other construction in this area...

As you can see, time has grown concrete, glass  and steel.

And indeed it was a Goo' Day! for a nice run.

BTW, this is our friendly neighborhood Do It Yourself.

At least once a week we go shopping here (=spending ++yen) as they also supply cat-food, you know, for .....

salute 

And Splashed

As you can see, Fu Kyo got splashed alright.

The red arrow on the right points to Alishan's mast.

You know, of Alishan on the Move.

It's a 5 minute bicycle ride between the 2 boats, handy!

Now it's a matter of loading Fu Kyo with food, drinks, diesel etc and as soon as the schedule allows Mr Mitsuda to come on board, we are heading for Southern Japan.

salute

Ready to be Splashed

After 4 months sitting on her trailer, Fu Kyo the Cat is ready to be splashed.

This cruising season she is dressed in Blue Bottoms.

.

Happy to move her away from this hardstand as the deck-size of a catamaran is a great target for local birds'

S.H.I.T.

salute

KitaKyushu Trail Run

An early morning start ( 0615 AM) saw us zoeffing by car to Kitakyushu where we parked at Yahata Station. 

From there we took the slow train to Saidosho Station.

That was a cute relaxed train ride...never in my life have i had seen the TRAIN DRIVER come and collect the train tickets!

Noriko and Yumi.

This pix is at Saidosho station.

Here we met up with Mr and Mrs Kohtake.

Pretty neh...

Last minute preps...always a shoe-lace or something in the pack to be adjusted.

And off we go....just 1 more pix. 

Hey see that, again seas of yellow and clouds of pink ... 

In the lead Mr Ohara, then Yumi, Noriko and 

Mr Kohtake ( aka Mr Mont Blanc...being the Mont Blanc Ultra Marathon veteran)

And that's why we came here...to Trail-Run all the way back to other side of this mountain range.

 (see Google Earth pix at the bottom.)

By times the going was tough..

Oops, more up-hill stuff

Even more..

But at the top...of course time for a snap-shot.

S**t,  more ....

Oh well, here we are at The Real Top. 

But Mr Mont Blanc always finds higher spots to be climbed.

As usual, during this trail-run Mr Kohtake took some side trips by himself to explore some more as us Non-MBers were just too slow...

 (When we were running down hill, Mr MB just "walked"...

and was even faster!)

Ha, going down, that's better stuff

And THIS is magic !!

Course directions are plenty and "easy"...

Only a few times we could see there was an other "life" out there.

And there is ALWAYS something RED at the end of the tunnel...

This time it came in a black can...

Boy, that tasted so good..

For the last down hill run we used...

The cable train.

According to the GPS we did something like 20+ K 

( Mr. MB 25).

It took us 7 hours, and it were magic hours. 

The company, the weather, the course...

Of course the bath afterwards was superrr..

By that time it was 7PM and i got a phone call from 

Sumie Maru: "Jaap, we have so much fish in the net, can you please come and help us?"

OK, ...at home, i swapped my clean clothes for my fishing outfit and helped with the konoshiro..

That night we finished "early": 1 AM

Guess what i did the next day...

Saga Sakura Half Marathon 2012

The Marina Animal Hospital Runners @ Sakura Marathon 2012. 

Watch all those smiley faces.

 Of course this is part of the Pre-Start Fun (Stress??)

And...off we go.

Perfect weather, sunshine and a little wind to keep us cool.

Marijke did manage to spot me. There were 5000 starters!

The first few Ks.
And the first cherry blossom (L).
No time to stop for a bowl of Udon ( sign R).

As you can see from the mess in front of me at one of the drink stations...

...I'm not in the lead;-)

Part of the course is along a river.

Seas of yellow NanaHana (rape seed).

And clouds of pink Sakura (cherry blossom).

     

Marijke found herself a nice possy along the course and was ready with the camera...

Who did she Nikon?

Well, that was an other 21K run.

Somehow my time was the same as last year: 2H 03M

Tradition wise we went for a meal "up in the mountains" where they serve carp sashimi.  The ONLY way to eat this river/pond fish is after it has been kept in clean-clean moutain water for a while, and served extremely chilled .

Hence the ice.

The sauce to-go: white miso and hot-spicy paste.

Yummy.

Thanx all for the fun and the (s)miles.