The Nihondaira Sakura Marathon 　日本平桜マラソン

ENTRY

2015.04.07

Hello everyone,

How are you? It’s peak cherry blossom time at the moment. Unfortunately, the weather has been raining most days so it’s been difficult to enjoy it this year. On Sunday, I took part in the Nihondaira Sakura (cherry blossom) Marathon. I know at least 2 Hario students also took part. Congratulations if you competed and got to the end. In the race you run along roads full of cherry blossoms. It was raining but even so the cherry blossoms looked really nice. There were many distances but I chose the 23.5km race. The first 10km were uphill. It was tough but I managed to run all the way and got a better time than I expected. Afterwards, my friends and I went to a tororo (Japanese yam puree) restaurant nearby. The restaurant was over 400 years old and was along the old Tokaido trade route. The same restaurant can be seen in one of Hiroshige Ando’s famous ukiyoe paintings of the Tokaido trade route. Anyway, it was my first time to eat tororo and it was really delicious and nice to learn a bit of Japanese history as well.

I will take a week’s vacation from tomorrow so that I can go to Derry, Northern Ireland, back in the UK, and attend my brother’s wedding. I’m really looking forward to it. When I get back I’ll write on this blog about my trip. So the other teachers at Hario will swap classes to cover my lessons. Thank you for that.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week.

Kevin

みなさん、こんにちは

ただいま桜のピークですね。残念ながら今年は雨が多く、青空の下で桜を楽しむのが難しいです。さて日曜日ですが、私は日本平桜マラソンに参加してきました。私の知る限りでは少なくとも2人のHarioの生徒が参加したようです。ゴールできましたでしょうか？マラソンコースとなった道には桜が満開でした。生憎の空模様でしたがそれでも桜はきれいに咲いていましたマラソンの距離はいくつかありましたが、私は23.5キロのコースに挑戦しました。最初の10キロは上り坂で大変でしたが何とか走り切り、タイムも予想していたより良いタイムでした
その後、友人達ととろろが有名なお店に行ってきました。400年以上も昔からあるお店で、旧東海道にあります。そのお店は安藤広重の有名な浮世絵にも描かれています。とろろを食べるのは初めてでしたがとても美味しく、同時に日本の歴史を少し学べて良かったです